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Biennale Arte 2024 - Evan Ifekoya
Evan Ifekoya describes their project for the 60th International Art Exhibition "Foreigners Everywhere" (Venice, 20 April - 24 November 2024).See more. -
Artist Conversation with Evan Ifekoya and Dr. Hannah Catherine Jones
This conversation between Evan Ifekoya and Dr. Hannah Catherine Jones provides insights into the artistic practice and gives background information to the exhibition Evan Ifekoya ~ Resonant Frequencies at Migros Museum, 2022.See more. -
An invitation: Interview with Evan Ifekoya about their film Undercurrent 528
Read more.Jenny Chamarette: And those sections in the film that capture the workshop speak to me about what I would describe as the intuitive and internal erotics and the healing sensuality of breath. However, the space of the camera feels both participatory, but also careful about who and how the participants are held in the frame. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about framing, and participation?
EI: There’s an ongoing concern for me around the slipperiness of documentation and liveness. With the work, there are these different layers, because the workshop is unfolding – the workshop was happening in real time…There’s the fact that [the workshop is] being filmed as it’s happening, but then you also have the participants who are taking part over Zoom.
But then I wanted to think, okay, these are subjects, these are people who are used to a gaze, which previously or at other times might be exploitative. And I was coming into it very mindful of that, to not want to in any way hinder or impact their experience. They did go into it knowing it would be filmed, but I also did say that I would be very mindful about how and what was filmed.
It was great as well to work with Rufai Ajala who was the director of photography, who is also an intimacy coordinator for film and production. They also brought that knowledge and understanding. And there are these moments in the film, and techniques where the lens flares and the image becomes obscured, and this was all happening live and in the moment – those weren’t post production effects. That was because we came into it thinking, okay, how do we ensure that the people who are involved don’t feel compromised, or that they’re on display for salacious reasons or for the pleasure of somebody or something outside of themselves. I didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardise the pleasure that they felt they could bring into the room and have in that moment in time. And I guess that was about how we framed the invitation to the people who participated, and the knowledge that Ru brought to being the camera person, being the person who was the eye of the camera for that sequence.
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Arts Council Collection - Artist in Focus: Evan Ifekoya
Evan Ifekoya inviteS the Arts Council Collection into their studio at Gasworks in South London to discuss their works in the collection, how they are collecting their own archive, and their wider practice.See more. -
Moving towards rupture, resistance, and refusal in Black moving image works: by Jamila Prowse, Grain Photography Hub, 2020
contoured thoughts, video (still) by Evan Ifekoya, 2019Read more.Evan Ifekoya’s 2019 contoured thoughts hones in on one everyday ritual in particular: rest. Thinking through rest as a methodology for resistance is well versed in Black feminist thought. I think of Audre Lorde’s declaration that Self Care is Self Preservation. Yet, in a sociopolitical context which has depoliticised rest and self-care, rebranding it as a capitalist, wealthy and white beauty industry of face masks and expensive beauty products, it is all the more necessary to attend to the radical underpinnings of rest. Evan feels out these radical underpinnings slowly and attentively. Evan’s arm, their hand and wrist visible, submerged in water, facing downwards and focused in on closely by the camera, but with space around in which you can see ripples of water spreading outwards. A triptych, Evan’s arm central, with different perspectives of the water and surrounding natural space of rocks and plants visible. In the next shot, Evan’s hands and the natural scene have swapped sides, now both arms are visible and instead of being fully submerged, float slightly on top of the water. We get a sense of being held and carried by water and nature. Then we come on to a wider shot of Evan’s neck and head above the water, their shoulders submerged, eyes closed and head tilted back in meditation or rest. The scene is imposed on a wider shot of the water, in a collaged effect.
The directness of Evan’s gaze and the sharp blast of colour in the natural scene, creates a stark disruption within the overriding stillness of the film. Evan’s gaze contains a heightened awareness, a vision. They are awake. They are acknowledging our presence. They are claiming their agency within this contemplative space. The music shifts, too, from a meditative repeating gong sound, to a repetitive bass creeping in, taking up increased aural space. We come on to a scene of flowing waterfalls, calm, and yet the juxtaposition to the previous stillness creates a rupture within the scene. After such still, the change is palpable, it is an activating, a rebirth, a reawakening.
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Evan Ifekoya on Re-imaging Care for BCA ‘Black Futures’.
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Evan Ifekoya, No.1: Start from a place of Abundance, 2018, installation view. Courtesy: the artist and Gasworks, London; photograph: Bernice Mulenga
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Conversations on B L I S S with Rambisayi Marufu
See more.For Episode 3 of Conversations on B L I S S Evan Ifekoya is joined by Rambisayi Marufu for a conversation on Reclaiming energy work (and hair!). -
Rythemic Medicine, ~Resonant Frequencies, 2022, Migros Museum, Zurich. Photo: Stefan Altenburg.
Press & Interviews
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