Ima-Abasi Okon: Infinite Slippage: nonRepugnant Insolvencies T!-a!-r!-r!-y!-i!-n!-g! as Hand Claps of M’s Hard’Loved’Flesh [I’M irreducibly-undone because] —Quantum Leanage-Complex-Dub

Chisenhale Gallery presents a new commission by London and Amsterdam-based artist 
Ima-Abasi Okon. Okon works with sculpture, sound and video to produce installations that explore exhibition-making as an exercise in syntax, adopting linguistic and grammatical structures within her installations as a way of complicating the construction of knowledge.

For her new commission at Chisenhale Gallery, Okon brings together a vocabulary of symbols embedded in both hand-made and mass-produced materials to explore representations of the body and the formation of taste, value and excess. A series of industrial air conditioners are adapted to become hosts for a new multi-channel sound piece comprising an existing audio track that has been slowed down. Acting as both a cooling system for the gallery and as a vehicle for the sound work, the fans perform at various speeds and durations.

The gallery ceiling has been partially lowered using a standardised modular system, often found within offices, retail spaces, waiting rooms and other administrative environments. The mass-produced ceiling tiles have been smeared with an invisible mixture of morphine, insulin, ultrasound gel and gold, imbuing the otherwise everyday objects with a personal, totemic charge.

Hand-crafted glass light shades, each adorned with an opulent design and filled with palm oil, hang from the ceiling. With the introduction of oil, the lights emit a golden glow, further highlighting an atmospheric friction between Okon’s production processes, pointing to the possibilities of magic as a sculptural act. Okon’s ongoing use of oriented strand board, painted with varnish and framed with “exotic woods” further explore how value is assigned to a given object or material through its categorisation, modes of display and origin.

Through the use of sound, scale and light, Okon’s new commission makes audible and palpable an excess, or surplus, that is often silenced or not seen and in doing so questions how to represent a body in its absence.

As part of the commissioning process, a series of discursive events have been programmed in collaboration with Okon and run throughout her exhibition. Okon’s exhibition continues Chisenhale Gallery’s Commissions Programme for 2019, which includes new commissions by artists Ghislaine Leung, Mandy El-Sayegh and Sidsel Meineche Hansen. Through her work, Okon explores new discourses on institutional critique, labour and value, themes that recur throughout Chisenhale Gallery’s programme for 2019.

Exhibition events:
As part of the commissioning process, a programme of events has been devised in collaboration with Ima-Abasi Okon.

Sound workshop for children
Saturday, July 6, 2pm
The Soundhoppers, a sound exploration playgroup run by Wajid Yaseen and Mara Bueno, lead a workshop for children (5–11 years) and their parents or carers in response to Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition. The workshop explores the wider creative possibilities of sound to develop careful listening and sonic curiosity.

Early morning viewing
Friday, July 12, 9–10:30am
An early morning viewing of Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition with an introduction to the work by Emma Moore, Curator: Engagement at Chisenhale Gallery.

ChisenhaleHz round table discussion
Saturday, July 13, 2pm
ChisenhaleHz—a collective of young people who meet regularly at Chisenhale Gallery—present a round table discussion considering what, or who, defines the “centre.” Devised in response to themes in Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition, the discussion will explore ideas of value and taste as articulations of the “centre,” locating these ideas within wider social and historic contexts.

Comprendre et s’exprimer by Christian Nyampeta
Thursday July 25, 7pm
Devised by artist Christian Nyampeta, Comprendre et s’exprimer, is an evening of thoughts, poems, songs, dances and videos in response to Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition.

fixing-to-use by Taylor Le Melle
Saturday, August 17, 2-5pm
Curator and writer Taylor Le Melle leads fixing-to-use, a seminar in response to Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition. Le Melle will review concepts that have been put forward by one particular system of english grammar, “fixing-to-use” elements that can structure an english sentence or phrase. Elements discussed include: Fragments, Modifiers, Agreement, Parallelism, Reference.

Ima-Abasi Okon in conversation with Marina Vishmidt  
Tuesday, August 20, 7pm
Ima-Abasi Okon is joined in conversation with Marina Vishmidt, writer, editor and Lecturer in Culture Industry at Goldsmiths, University of London, to discuss her new commission at Chisenhale Gallery.  

Events are free to attend, unless otherwise stated, but booking is strongly advised. Please visit chisenhale.eventbrite.co.uk to make a reservation.

Biography
Ima-Abasi Okon lives and works between London and Amsterdam. Selected exhibitions include: The Weather Garden: Anne Hardy curates the Arts Council Collection, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; Sur— [MIX-USE COMMODITY] —plus, Kingsgate Project Space, London; Parables for the BLAZER: Mahalia’s EXCISTENCEandEXISTENTS-HyPE fragrant stacking balm (306.HAL), Plaza Plaza, London; 13th Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal; There’s something in the conversation that is more interesting than the finality of (a title), The Showroom, London (all 2018); UNTITLED: Art on the Conditions of Our Time, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2017); and OUTPOST Members’ Show 2016, Norwich (2016). In 2018, she was awarded both the Nigel Greenwood Research Prize and the Summer Residency at Hospitalfield, Scotland. She is currently participating in the residency programme at Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten (Academy for fine arts), Amsterdam.

Ima-Abasi Okon’s exhibition is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London and will tour to Void, Derry~Londonderry in 2020.

Ima-Abasi Okon’s commission is produced with support from the Chisenhale Gallery Commissions Fund and Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants. With additional support from the Ima-Abasi Okon Supporters’ Circle. Chisenhale Gallery’s Commissions Programme 2019 is supported by the Luma Foundation.

Chisenhale Gallery’s Talks and Events Programme 2019 is supported by Brian Boylan and forms part of Chisenhale Gallery’s Engagement Programme. With additional support from the Engagement Programme Supporters’ Circle.

Chisenhale Gallery
Registered charity number 102617