“A Radical Shift”: Hopes and Experiences from the Emerging Curators Fellowship

The Frieze x Deutsche Bank Emerging Curators Fellowship brings together artists and organizations across the non-profit and private sector to increase accessibility, representation and social mobility within the arts as well as creating an opportunity to grow and deepen curatorial practice in some of the UK’s leading public art institutions. Following successful fellowships in institutions including V&A East, the Chisenhale Gallery and BALTIC, Frieze are now fundraising to support the next fellowship hosted at the Whitworth.

In this video, we hear from Eva Langret, Director of Frieze London, and two fellowship alumni - Amina Jama (Emerging Fellow, Chisenhale Gallery) and Kinnari Saraiya (Emerging Fellow, BALTIC) – about their experiences and successes on the program, from running community workshops to curating expansive exhibitions with diverse voices at the forefront.

To fund the next placement, artist Ibrahim Mahama has generously donated artworks for sale, and all proceeds will directly benefit the fellowship at the Whitworth.

About the Edition

Ibrahim Mahama

On a spaceship, 2019-2022

Giclee Fine Art Print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper – Photo Rag Smooth

40 x 50 cm

Edition of 30 

£800 +VAT

The edition On a spaceship (2019-2022) by Ibrahim Mahama features an image of building work in progress at Mahama’s Red Clay studio complex in Tamale, overlaid with archival imagery from a former state- run paint factory in Tema, Ghana. Initially established by the Ghanaian State in the period of post-Independence, the paint factory was privatised in the 1990s and later deserted. While setting up a temporary studio in the empty building some years ago, Mahama came across an abandoned trove of documents from the factory, which he then began to physically incorporate into his work. 

Red Clay, Mahama’s ambitious new studio complex which hosts workshops, screenings and local communities, provides the backdrop to the black and white image of a worker from the paint factory. In exploring the layering of history, industry and political exigency that embodies aspects of Ghana’s past, Mahama has noted ‘I’m interested in these voids in history. We’re like time travellers: we now know how history plays out, how capital becomes more brutal. What decisions could we have made differently?’

On a spaceship (2019-2022) is available as an edition of 30 and priced at £800 + VAT each, with 100% of sales proceeds benefiting the fellowship. Or you can also enter a prize draw to win the edition, by making the donation of your choice.  

BUY NOW

MAKE A DONATION

About the Whitworth

The Whitworth is an institution committed to decolonizing art and its spaces through practices of care, accessibility, representation and social mobility. The fellow will join the Collections and Exhibitions team and will work on the gallery’s programme reflecting the University’s bicentenary as a core piece of their work throughout 2023-24. They will also have the opportunity to receive funding to carry out a piece of practice-based research as part of the Fellowship. The Fellow will have access to mentoring sessions with the members of the Frieze team and Deutsche Bank Art and will undergo practical training, one-to-one mentoring as well as continuous professional development in the role.

About the Fellows

Amina Jama is a Somali writer, facilitator and curator. Her work focuses on decoloniality, fragmentation, archives, and alternate ways of imagining. Her debut poetry pamphlet A Warning to the House that Holds Me, published by Flipped Eye Press, was the recipient of a 2020 Eric Gregory Award. Amina has worked with the Barbican Centre, Serpentine Gallery, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, ICA, Roundhouse, Royal African Society and Black Cultural Archives. 

Kinnari Saraiya (born in Mumbai, 1998) is a Wordbuilder, Artist, Curator and Writer, but primarily, she’s a Storyteller. She works across film, interactive 3D digital immersive environments, installation, animation, sculpture, folk dance and sound which allows her to interweave complex sensorial narratives together. Her work blends memories of her ancestral self into nested colonial realities to build a third space, beyond binaries, that is virtual, transnational and diasporic. She thrives in the gaps of knowledge, the inaccuracies of interpretations, the mistranslations of language, where myth weaves around historical accounts forcing the collision of pre-humanist thought and post-humanist desire. She has won several awards since graduating in 2020 and has exhibited in over 20 exhibitions nationally and internationally, most notably at the Kyiv Biennial 2021 Allied, curated by members of the East Europe Biennial Alliance.