Anissa-Jane
29 April to 10 June 2005
Launch Event: Thursday 28th April, 6.30-9.00pm
198 Gallery
is pleased to present the first major solo exhibition of work by Anissa-Jane,
a young emerging artist based in London.
Presenting
work developed from her project Wo-manifestation, an exploration of
her roots, Anissa-Jane investigates personal and collective experiences
of cultural displacement and their effects. Her non-wearable garments
made using materials such as brown paper, cocoa butter and hair express
how people have been forced to change and adapt under societal pressures
in their non-native surroundings.
In her
hands, brown paper, a material more familiar used as packaging or as
envelopes, becomes “a metaphor for [her] own brown skin.”
Part of the message is a celebration of “the accomplishments of
[her] forebears who have lived through and adapted to their changing
social situation over the centuries.” While her personal standpoint
is that of a British West Indian female, her work has a wider relevance:
the works can hold meaning for any person who has been subjected to
social forces and pressures that have necessitated changes in their
way of being.
Anissa-Jane draws on fashion, theatre and popular culture for her methodology
and presentation. Made by manipulating brown paper in different ways
such as “twisting, crumpling, oiling, threading and staining,”
her beautifully handcrafted theatrical and sculptural garments such
as Wo-manifestation gain a life of their own, transcending boundaries
and restrictions. The material has changed through these processes,
but its original identity can still be perceived. There are also intriguing
contrasts in
the qualities of her work such as flexibility and fragility, strength
and delicacy.
She has exhibited in many venues in London and the surrounding areas,
including the oh!art centre at Oxford House last year.