Acaye Kerunen. Neena, aan uthii

About

The exhibition will feature a new body of sculptures, sound installations, and performance that interlace living forms of knowledge embedded within Ugandan communities. Translated from Alur as See me, I am here, this show marks Kerunen’s debut presentation with Pace since joining the gallery’s program in 2022.

Based in Kampala, Uganda, Kerunen’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses visual and performance art, curation, and activism. The sculptures Kerunen has created for Neena, aan uthii are vivid tapestries of embodied knowledge, incorporating a diverse range of natural materials and techniques that demonstrate her ongoing commitment to climate-conscious practice.

Kerunen often collaborates with artisans from across Uganda’s sixty-five primary communities who source materials including palm leaves, sorghum and millet stems, sisal, raffia palm, grass, banana fiber and rinds, and barkcloth from their natural habitats. They prepare these by stripping, dying, braiding, weaving, tanning, or crocheting. These essential components—each imbued with cultural, sociological, and ecological significance—form the basis of her sculptural assemblages. Transformed from their organic or functional origins, they undergo a conceptual reimagining that celebrates material, process, and surface as a unified whole.