Rosa-Johan Uddoh Awarded The fourth Stuart Hall Library Artist’s Residency

Stuart Hall Foundation and Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) are delighted to announce artist, writer and educator Rosa-Johan Uddoh has been selected for the fourth Stuart Hall Library Artist’s Residency – a funded opportunity that builds on Professor Stuart Hall’s unique contribution to intellectual and cultural life. The residency will focus on research that underpins Uddoh’s work to understand and engage people in cultural issues around black performance in ‘postcolonial’ spaces.

Selected through an impressively competitive open call, the artist will begin her residency in May 2020. The jurors selected Uddoh for her ongoing interest in her practice concerning the construction of the performative act and characterisation in popular culture that produces the black or British subjectivity. Uddoh’s previous work has drawn on popular figures such as Moira Stuart, Hercule Poirot, Venus Williams, Una Marson.

During this time, Uddoh will focus on researching Stuart Hall’s lectures and other archival material available online. Uddoh explains that she will be

“using the library resources to contextualise his charismatic presentations with performance art of the time.” She plans “to study Hall’s Open University lectures as performances for late-night television and his published papers as scripts. Exploring Hall as both performance theorist and performer himself, this research will culminate in a pantomime.”

Through this research, Uddoh will explore Hall’s commitment to disseminating knowledge through different media channels, which acquires a renewed sense of urgency in the context of the current global situation. A public event will be presented towards the end of the year. 

The Stuart Hall Library Artist’s Residency is an annual funded opportunity established in partnership between Iniva and the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Sepake Angiama, Artistic Director at Iniva said:

“We are happy that Iniva and Stuart Hall Foundation can come together to support the development of Rosa-Johan Uddoh’s work and continued research through archive collections especially at this time. Rosa’s residency will begin by using archive material and we are excited to see how she will work with the material to think through the performative and gestural media apparatuses in Hall’s own life.”

Ruth Borthwick, Executive Director of Stuart Hall Foundation, said:

“The Stuart Hall Foundation is thrilled that Rosa-Johan Uddoh is to be the fourth Stuart Hall Library Artist in Residence. Her careful reading of Stuart’s memoir ‘Familiar Stranger’ in which she notices the reference to pantomime in Stuart’s childhood in Jamaica and links it with his own extraordinary ability as a communicator is exciting. I can’t wait to see how she creates her own modern pantomime in response.”

Building on the distinct connections between both organisations, the residency allows a visual artist the space to think about some of the key themes related to the work of Iniva and the Foundation, including the language of the diaspora, culture, identity and archiving.

About Rosa-Johan Uddoh

Rosa-Johan Uddoh (b.1993, Croydon) is an interdisciplinary artist working towards radical self-love, inspired by black feminist practice and writing. Through performance, installation, ceramics, video and sound, she explores an infatuation with places, objects or celebrities in British popular culture, and the effects of these on self-formation. 

Rosa studied Architecture BA at Cambridge University and MA Fine Art at The Slade (University College London) as a Sarabande Foundation scholar. Recently, Rosa has shown work at: Tate Modern, Jupiter Woods (solo), Black Tower Projects (solo), Nottingham Contemporary and New Contemporaries 2018. She is a Liverpool Biennial & John Moores University Fellow and a Lecturer in Performance at Central Saint Martins.www.rosajohanuddoh.com@rosa_johan (Instagram)

About Iniva

Iniva is an evolving, radical visual arts organisation dedicated to developing an artistic programme that reflects the social and political impact of globalisation. With the Stuart Hall Library acting as a critical and creative hub for our work, we collaborate with artists, curators, researchers and cultural producers to challenge conventional notions of diversity and difference. We engage a wide audience, particularly young people, in discourse and debate on issues surrounding the politics of race, class and gender.

Through our programme we work predominantly with British-born and British-based visual artists of African and Asian descent supporting them at different stages in their careers. We offer residencies, commission new work and promote existing practices enabling ambition and artist development. By cultivating innovative thinking, we are committed to disseminating research across a wide cultural spectrum and geographical network. Our ambition is to build a greater body of knowledge around each of the artists with whom we work to ensure the legacy of their practices for future generations of researchers and audiences.

Founded in 1994, under the leadership of renowned academic Professor Stuart Hall, Iniva is a non-profit organisation based in East London. It has established itself as a pioneering arts organisation in the artistic environment in the UK and beyond. Iniva has worked with internationally renowned artists and curators early in their careers including David A Bailey, Sonia Boyce, Sheela Gowda, NS Harsha, Isaac Julien, Steve McQueen, Chris Ofili, Yinka Shonibare, Kobena Mercer, Okwui Enwezor, and Guy Brett.

Iniva is a registered charity and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and is generously supported by individual donors, trusts and foundations.www.iniva.orgIniva on Facebook@iniva_arts (Instagram)@Iniva_arts (Twitter)

For more information, please contact:

Harriet Fleuriot, Stuart Hall Foundation: harriet@stuarthallfoundation.org

Simina Neagu, Iniva: sneagu@iniva.orgDownload a PDF version of the press release.pdf