Gallery 1957 is proud to present its sister-city exhibition project, Constellations. Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond opened in London Spring 2024 followed by Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space in London that Summer. This multimedia exhibition brings together emerging and established artists from within the gallery’s programme and beyond, celebrating the creative communities in Ghana and the UK, and cultural exchanges across the planet.

Part 1 Website‍ | Curatorial Essay

Part 2 Website‍ | Press Release

Co-curated by Katherine Finerty, Nuna Adisenu-Doe, and Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, the Constellations project brings to life models of knowledge-sharing for contemporary exhibition making, public gathering, and worldbuilding. It takes as its point of departure the exchange between the Gallery’s homes in London and Accra in the context of a greater translocal creative ecosystem. Each multimedia programme will respond to its unique location, bringing together artists considering their own natural and artificial habitats in immersive site-specific installations to foster a spirit of place.

In line with ecofeminist scholar Donna Haraway, Constellations – Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond rejects the concept of the Anthropocene Epoch, a term referring to the current geological age centred on the idea that human activity is the dominant influence on the Earth. The exhibition concept repositions humans as part of a larger collective biosphere, critically examining structures of power, memory, and agency by activating enduring and transcendent global narratives from origin stories to science fiction. In a time where radically reimagining inter-species inhabitation is nothing short of vital, we welcome all artists and audiences to imagine new futures and pose solutions for a regenerative world.

Gallery 1957 is thrilled to present Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space,the second part of the sister-city exhibition between Gallery 1957 in Accra and London.

Artists participating in this group show include those collaborating with the gallery for the first time; Clifford Bright Abu, Abdul-Salam Alhassan, Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah, Dela Anyah, Dzidzor Azaglo, Elolo Bosoka, Jasper Dafeamekpor, Rosemary Esinam Damalie, Victor Ehikhamenor, Samuel Baah Kortey, Rebekka Macht, Afrane Makof, Putin Ofori, Frederick Ebenezer Okai, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Ghizlane Sahli and Nyahan Tachie-Menson, as well as long-term collaborator Jonathan Okoronkwo and artists who participated in Constellations Part 1; Lois Selasie Arde-Acquah, Phoebe Boswell, Adelaide Damoah, Denyse Gawu-Mensah, Henry Hussey, Sarah Meyohas and Lisa C Soto.

Constellations Part 1: Figures on Earth & Beyond sought to challenge the framing of our epoch as the “Anthropocene” by asking: how can we re-examine art historical, spiritual, and science fictional representations of figures in a landscape through a lens of empathy and interconnection? By activating enduring global narratives of creation mythology, animism, terrestrial paradise, heaven and earth, space colonisation, and more, participants were welcomed to pose future solutions for a regenerative world in the age of the “Chthulucene” (Greek for khthôn / kainos, respectively of the earth / now). This reconceived epoch conceived by ecofeminist scholar Donna Haraway is “made up of ongoing multispecies stories and practices of becoming-with in times that remain at stake, in precarious times, in which the world is not finished, and the sky has not fallen – yet.”

Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space continues this research pursuit by inquiring about the notion of our interconnectedness, and our place in trying to decentre ourselves. As American ecologist and philosopher Timothy Morton poses in his 2009 book Ecology without Nature, how can we rethink our sense of place and not get too comfortable with ‘nature’ in all its passive, normative, and hierarchical structures imposed by humans?

Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space continues the research-based vision of Constellations as a platform for experimentation and knowledge-sharing to collectively imagine new futures. Part 2 distinctly re-examines the way we understand the place of humans in the world, to challenge us into re-thinking ecology without essentialist narratives of ‘nature’. This interconnected portal focuses on immersive site-specific installations through a West African mythological lens to extend our enduring, interconnected earth story whereby radically reimagining human and nonhuman inhabitation is nothing short of vital.