The Light Between

What Happened Under the Moon Stays Under the Moon

Come Back Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream

Come Back Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream (Detail)

Group Exhibition
11 May - 8 June 2024

Exhibition Opening: Saturday 11 May 2024
Exhibition Closure: Saturday 8 June 2024 Exhibition Catalogue Facebook Twitter

“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in” – Leonard Cohen, The Future

Through the subtle networks of quiet resistance, The Light Between delves into the intricate tapestry of collective memory, and reflections on African consciousness. The duality and contradictory nature of light and shadow rests at the heart of the exhibition to present a dialogue between the past and present, inspired by the enduring symbol of the moon.

Cycling through periods of waxing and waning, the moon reflects the duality of our existence, as custodians of both light and shadow. Across the African continent, the symbolism of the moon reveals many mythologies and spiritual interventions that are often feminine in nature. As an oscillating entity for both vulnerability and strength, the moon holds an ethereal space, where one can confront deepest fears or relinquish the facade that the daylight demands. Beneath the potency of the moon’s umbra also lies room for co-existence, where strength and fear are housed alongside trepidation and the force of the unyielding human spirit.

Using my role as curator to be a conduit, I aim to replace the literal soapbox with collective breath. Through considered visual dialogue, an abstract and surrealist lexicon, and a selection of fragrances ERDA & VERDE, the exhibition holds sensorial safety to confront and engage with complex themes during a time when cancel culture is often weaponised to silence artists and cultural workers.

“ERDE is a message in a bottle; it is environmental activism in a scent,” shares Jo Jo Gibbons.

Embracing feminist discourse, 11 artists were tasked with presenting alternative narratives that defy societal expectations, whilst tackling themes such as threatened ecologies, identity, collective histories, cultural dislocation, and urban mythology. Working intimately with artists from across South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom we aim to provide a sensory encounter in three parts; scent, colour, and light as our own act of quiet resistance.

Text by Kimberley Cunningham

“To be a mess
To be a fantastic mess
Is
To give more than to take
That means loving everyone and everything
Even if it makes your heart break
Everything I do everything I make
Is basically throwing a rock in a lake
Waves radiate
Everything feels it
Even if it’s tiny even if it’s little
Any act of kindness
Makes the heavens orgasm
Makes the heavens shake”

— Mohammad AlFaraj

Participating artists in The Light Between include Mohammad AlFaraj, Nada Baraka, Intissar Belaid, Meriem Bouderbala, Mia Chaplin, Farnaz Gholami, Huda Lutfi, Hanna Noor Mahomed, Sepideh Mehraban, Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu, and Bindi Vora.