‘During: Changeable Behaviour/ Behavioural Change (Here Soon)’ is the title given to this exhibition of works by Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, as it explores the organic procession of production through the transaction of hands.
In 2019, Boakye-Yiadom took up an artist residency at the Villa Lena Foundation located in Italy. This artist retreat fostered the expansion and progression of collaboration and exchange, inviting an array of cultural practitioners to dissect the cultural and political dichotomies of our everyday life through multiple dialogues. Not only was this the inception for Boakye- Yiadom instigating his trail of thought towards his exhibition, the residency also gave him the opportunity to further exercise this essence of mistrust in images by repeating and revealing the details of its production.
Surrounded by a vast and luscious landscape where around every corner edible produce was grown. Boakye-Yiadom would frequently find himself observing the subtle ripening within the pomegranate trees. Capturing the pomegranate in photographic form, both in its entirety and intimate detail. Boakye-Yiadom’s fascination with such delicacies and this particular Pomegranate stems from the cultural and concurrent values they introduce and inherit. Native as a fruit from Iran that subsequently became a subject of delicacy (bearing the emblematic promise of eternal life and fertility - owing to their many seeds) that came to be domesticated and cultivated across vast areas of the world.
This exhibition space takes the shape and form of a laboratory, acting as a vehicle for multiple experiences and a plurality of voices to inject new dialogues and forms of life. Boakye-Yiadom’s oeuvre is centred on a large tiled A3 paper prints that form a picture of the pomegranate alongside forming a backdrop to a shelf with x4 identical bookshelves speakers. From this a close-up was taken of this setup and edited in monochrome in multiple outcomes with different exposures. The material was then used as a test print to compare the different possible printing outcomes. This common digital printing practice often has two different processes: one - where the images are scaled down and printed separately, which Boakye-Yiadom references within the framed works composed within the show; and the second, the printing studio spontaneously selects and crops a section of the image based on what they think is the best example of the tonal variation within an image. Repeating the exact selection across the different image files and collating them next to each other on the same page. Normally this process is made in deciding what variant would be best to print a full image, however Boakye-Yiadom keeps the test print in raw form. Experimenting with both their scale and material while printing onto fabricvsound panels and wallpaper.
In Boakye-Yiadom’s attempt to steer away from the use of a single narrative, he exposes and exercises this notion of humility, through revealing the refined detail of a body of work while also the discrepancies that transpire throughout the process. In turn this laboratory would allow Boakye-Yiadom to interact with notions of movement and change as a natural and unrelenting force and fact of life and the pomegranate and other “exotic” plants from previous works come to represent this.
This exploration of centring the production process, can be traced back to his previous solo show at the Goldsmiths CCA, London, 2020, titled ‘Before, During & After: Here Now, ’Before, During & After: Here Soon’. An exposition of two dialogues, focusing on his ability to learn how to play the trap drums; one where the artist is present and the other in which he is physically absent. In his attempt to exercise ideas of plurality and cross-pollination, he would insert the addition of being taught by several percussionists interacting and yielding their interpretations. In light of this Boakye-Yiadom will also continue this learning process during the course of the exhibition. Taking place offsite in his studio, updating his progress and inserting back into the exhibition in the form of amplified one-off audio recordings.
Text by Darè Dada
BEFORE, DURING & AFTER: HERE NOW
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom
Boakye-Yiadom lives and works in London. Currently showing at ‘Untitled: Art on the conditions of our time’, Kettles Yard, Cambridge until 3 October 2021 other recent exhibitions include: ‘Solos’, Goldsmiths CCA 2020, London; ‘Jerwood Solo Presentations’, London (2019); ‘Before: Adaptive Rhythm’, Black Tower Projects, London (2018); ‘The Weather Garden: Anne Hardy curates the Arts Council Collection’, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne (2019); ‘Michael Jackson: On The Wall’, Touring National Portrait Gallery, London, Grand Palais, Paris, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany (2018/19); 13th Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar (2018); Screening works for Hanging Out, Artists’ Moving Image Festival, LUX Scotland, UK (2019); Nocturnal Creatures, Whitechapel Gallery Festival, London, UK (2019)
