Exhibition

Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Una's Voice

1 May 2022 – 4 Jun 2022

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
12:00 – 17:00
Thursday
12:00 – 17:00
Friday
12:00 – 17:00
Saturday
12:00 – 17:00
Sunday
12:00 – 17:00

Free admission

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The Bower

London
England, United Kingdom

Event map

Rosa-Johan Uddoh has been working in The Bower treating her time there as a writing and sound residency inspired by the work of Una Marson, a British/Jamaican activist, radio producer, presenter, and poet; the first Black woman to work as a radio producer at the BBC in 1942.

About

Uddoh's script and sound piece draws on the legacy of Una Marson's 'Caribbean Voices', a BBC radio programme produced by Marson which broadcast Caribbean writing. Visitors are invited to listen to recordings taken in The Bower and Brunswick Park of contemporary Caribbean voices, following a call-out to local residents and voices further afield. The work re-visits and re-presents Una Marson's poetry, interwoven with Uddoh's own writing and draws upon Bajan poet Kamau Brathwaite's key text 'History of the Voice' (1984) which asserted that the Caribbean voice is not an English dialect but a distinct nation language. 

Uddoh is an interdisciplinary artist working towards radical self-love. She is inspired by Black feminist practice and writing. Through performance, writing and multi-media installation, she explores places, objects and celebrities in British popular culture, and their effects on self-formation. Collaboration is key to her work, often working together with children, activists and other artists to explore themes that impact our communities and share knowledge. 

A new book, Practice Makes Perfect published by Book Works and Focal Point Gallery, in partnership with Bluecoat, Liverpool and The Bower and designed by Rose Nordin will be launched during the exhibition. The book will be Uddoh’s first and comprises a collection of scripts, pictures, poems, essays and songs, each aiming to trouble how a particular character in popular culture performs (and produces) ‘Black British’ identity. 

Previous solo presentations include: ‘Practice Makes Perfect’, Focal Point Gallery, touring to Bluecoat, Liverpool (2021), ‘”She is still alive!”’, Destiny’s (Oslo, 2020),  ‘Studies for Impartiality’, Jupiter Woods and ‘Sphinx at the Crystal Palace’, Black Tower Projects (both London, 2019). Group shows include: ‘Brand New Heavies’, Pioneer Works (New York, 2021), ‘Learning by Doing’, 68 Institute (Copenhagen, 2019), New Contemporaries (London & Liverpool 2018)  She has screened work at East London Cable’s ‘TV Dinners E03’ at Tate Modern, 2019 and is a lecturer in Performance at Central Saint Martins. She was a finalist for Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2021, Liverpool Biennial and John Moores University Fellow 2018-2019 and the Stuart Hall Library Resident for 2020. She was a Sarabande: Lee Alexander Mc Queen Scholar. 

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