UNTANGLING THE PERILS THAT TANGLE US | 12 November - 17 December 2021 - Overview

".....and I recall that even then I had not yet begun to imagine the perils that tangle us."

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Kanbi Projects is pleased to present Untangling the Perils that Tangle Us, a group exhibition showcasing twelve artists, working on and off the continent with a geographical spread across three continents Europe, Africa and the Americas, whose expressions engage the complexities of blackness as the world emerges from a global pandemic.

The exhibition showcases twelve emerging artists, exploring a diverse artistic spectrum through ‘multidimensional works in painting, photography, video and sculpture. The title of the exhibition is inspired by a sentence in author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book ‘Between the World and Me', “and I recall that even then I had not yet begun to imagine the perils that tangle us.” In his book, Coates speaks of the ‘plundering of the black body’ from an African-American perspective including police brutality and institutional racism.

Conceived as a liminal space in history, the exhibition through the practice of the participating artists engage the dynamic spatial and temporal aspects of the black lived experience by moving away from expected prejudices and stereotypes stemming from the past, as they seek to re-imagine historical gaps, examine the present in divergent geographical contexts or create alternative futures, one that transcends the current view on race, nationality or national belonging and offers a more diverse transnational, transcontinental and transcultural perspectiveof blackness.

Accompanied by a soundscape produced by Nigerian based Osemwengie Ekunwe and Joe Ekunwe, the exhibition is a collaboration with The Koppel Project and is proudly supported by the Arts Council England through the National Lottery Project Grants.