Kanbi Projects is delighted to present an exclusive online solo exhibition of works by Congolese-born photographer Glodi Bahati. In her new body of work titled 'Fragments of Self', Bahati interrogates the politics of selfhood through a series of self-portraits.
In Fragments of Self, Bahati questions how we conform the self in order to be accepted, and how existing in the oppressive structures of capitalism, patriarchy, white privilege and other forms of oppressive systems dictates our performance and expression of self and limits our intersecting identities. In these vibrant, intimate self-portraits, striking and ever in motion, Bahati positions herself in conversation with this question.
The works presented in the exhibition are deeply invested in Bahati's own intersecting identities: young, plus size, refugee black woman of African descent living in a western-dominated, globalised and social-media driven consumerism contemporary society. These identities speak to the complexity of self, fluid and intricate, navigating through an intersection of structural terrains of overlapping systems of privilege and oppression as described by transnational feminist scholars Linda E. Carty and Chandra Talpade Mohanty.
Yet, Bahati strive to frame and represent an idea of self albeit in fragments, employing performativity, abstraction and photographic composition to capture intimate expressions of beauty and vulnerability while confronting issues of identity politics, selfhood and social visibility.
Born in 2000 to cleric parents, Bahati is the youngest of eight siblings. At the age of two, she and her family fled the civil war in her home country (Congo) to Kampala, Uganda, where she lived for ten years before immigrating to Winnipeg, Canada under a refugee status1. A self-taught visual artist, Glodi Bahati uses photography as a tool to reflect on herself and ask questions about the world around her, while also celebrating her community. Artists like Vivian Maier, Petra Collins, Micaiah Carter and Carrie Mae Weems are a consistent inspiration.
This exhibition is the first edition in the series of a newly launched platform by Kanbi Projects called Launchpad. Launchpad is an exclusive online-only exhibition providing exciting young artists with a solo collaboration with the gallery. Through its programme, Kanbi Projects seeks to facilitate the dissemination of artistic research and diverse practices addressing relevant social issues of the Black lived experience through a collaborative ethos together with artists and other partners.
1 Glodi Bahati At TakeHome BIPOC Arts House by Chukwudubem Ukaigwe
