Kapwani Kiwanga

Positive-Negative (morphology), 2018/2020
A hole in the ground and its soil contents

Implements, 2018/2020
Tools made out of ceramics with ash-based glaze, Bucket for ash with handles in ceramic, ash-based glaze

Fire & Fallow, 2018/2020
Ritual, Ceramic tiles with ash-based glaze

Kapwani Kiwanga’s practice deals with complex issues around historical and ongoing colonial processes and their aftermath. A hole has been dug on the grounds of Välkommaskolan and its contents transferred into the building. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to carry the soil back to the hole, one bucket at a time. Through direct physical contact with the work, the act of giving and giving back is emphasised. Kiwanga’s intervention will leave behind another scar-like trace on the grounds as a testimony to what was extracted in Välkommaskolan’s final months. As a preliminary context for her installation, Kiwanga has invited a group of local cultural practitioners to meet around a fire in the school yard and exchange knowledge about decolonisation and property in relation to the extraction of natural resources.

The gathering encourages active listening and stresses the crucial role of storytelling in the transfer of knowledge. Ash from the fire becomes part of the glaze that will cover the ceramic objects that visitors use to restore the soil to the hole. The conversations that were had around the fire will be symbolically present each time the objects are used.

Nursery, 2015
Wild celery (Angelica archangelica)
Common rue (Ruta Graveolens)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Sticklewort (Agrimonia eupatoria)
Wood, oral stories

Kapwani Kiwanga takes an interest in plants and the magical properties attributed to them, especially in resistance movements. Here, the artist presents a collection of plants that have played a crucial political, social, religious or economic role for individuals or entire communities at different points in history and in several different parts of the world. Kiwanga gives voice to the plants, and makes space for them in the dominant historical narrative.

Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978, Hamilton) is an artist based in Paris.

As part of Woven Songs, in collaboration with Public Art Agency Sweden.

© Kapwani Kiwanga

Work

Positive-Negative (morphology), 2018/2020
A hole in the ground and its soil contents

Implements, 2018/2020
Tools made out of ceramics with ash-based glaze, Bucket for ash with handles in ceramic, ash-based glaze

Fire & Fallow, 2018/2020
Ritual, Ceramic tiles with ash-based glaze

Nursery, 2015
Wild celery (Angelica archangelica)
Common rue (Ruta Graveolens)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Sticklewort (Agrimonia eupatoria), wood, oral stories

Location

Välkommaskolan, Malmberget
21.11–14.2