Ebun Sodipo
VITRINE is delighted to present the first exhibition in Switzerland of emerging artist Ebun Sodipo, who works across performance, film, sculpture and collage, and narrates constructions of a black trans-feminine self after slavery and colonialism through visual assemblages.
![Ebun Sodipo, [This is not the beginning,] so let’s start here, 2023. Mylar, digital paper print, epoxy resin and mirror in black perspex frame. 33 x 23 x 5 cm. Unique.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f073870db3803e506d735cc/64886b1469dd0ba448dcc30e_ES%2C%20Framed%20Callage%20E%2C%2001%20copy.jpg)
![Ebun Sodipo, [This is not the beginning,] so let’s start here, 2023. Mylar, digital paper print, epoxy resin and mirror in black perspex frame. 33 x 23 x 5 cm. Unique.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f073870db3803e506d735cc/64886b154563b5afc77d6d30_ES%2C%20Framed%20Callage%20E%2C%2002%20copy.jpg)
'The Edge Sheen of a Cut' presents a new body of wall-based sculptural works in resin and mylar showing images from the artist's visual archive. Sodipo initially developed works in this material whilst on residency at V.O Curations over 2022 and incorporates mylar overlayed with digital prints of images assembled on the surface, both of which are then coated in resin and left to harden.
The images used in Sodipo's compositions - created in both her sculptures and videos - are sourced from the artist's growing archive of images, GIFs and videos found on the internet. The archive is an exploration into what she describes as her own formation of personal narrative, self-possession and the aestheticisation of compositional materials that reflect ideas around transformation, desire and sexuality.
In one of the large works in the exhibition ‘Anonymous Admirer’, the provenance of the image content includes a cropped still of Octavia St. Laurent in 'Paris is Burning', an image of Donyala Luna, one of the first black models working in the USA, a close up of Mary J. Blige's nails from a concert in New Jersey in 2000.
Text is often an initial element to her works which she uses to interpret their content and imagery, other times the artist builds her compositions around a mood or colours. Images of manga characters, memes, historical figures and film stills are present in the works with a focus on tactility and touch; hands, embraces and words.
Material plays an important role in the artist's practice. Her use of mylar and reflective surfaces imitates the shimmer of water, a natural aesthetic that the artist has had a long term attraction to, likening it to desire and lust. By catching light and making it refract in ways that the artist cannot predict, it furthers the work's filmic qualities to provide a sense of movement and shimmer.
A screening of Sodipo's recent film work 'Nasty Girl (The Sharpest Girl in Town)' (2023) will be screened to accompany the exhibition, during Art Basel week 2023. Sodipo's 24-minute film further investigates the artist's visual archive set over selected music tracks and becoming fast paced moving assemblages, exploring desire in a multivalent manner.
Ebun Sodipo lives and works in London, UK. She has exhibited in institutions and galleries including: Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK; VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, IR; FACT Liverpool, UK; The Block Museum of Art, Evanston, USA; VO Curations, London, UK; Chaos Magic, Nottingham, UK; a space arts, Southampton, UK; Koppel Projects, London, UK; Ugly Duck, London, UK; Paradise Row, London, UK; flat70, London, UK; Every Woman Biennale (2020), London, UK; Embassy Gallery, London, UK; Narrative Projects, London, UK; Willesden Gallery, London, UK.
Residencies include: VO Curations 2022; Rhubaba Writers Residency, 2021-2022; Porthmeor Studios Artist Residency, 2021; PPILOT, 2021; LUX Working Group Residency, 2021; Gasworks Studio Residency, 2020-2021; Radical Care, AFA Masterclass, 2020; Website Residency, The White Pube, 2020; Peer Forum, Camden Arts Centre, 2019.
She has performed and read at Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Camden Arts Centre, London, UK; South London Gallery, London, UK; Autoitalia, London, UK; Arebyte Gallery, London, UK; Jupiter Woods, London, UK; Bergen Kunsthall, NO; Frieze London 2021, UK.
Ebun Sodipo