| Multiple Entries-Africa and beyond
works 2001/2008 supported by
Australian Embassy in Italy, National Commission for Culture, Ghana
Foundation for Contemporary Art, Ghana
introduction by Achille Bonito Oliva
coordinated by Cecilia Metelli | The exhibition includes a vast multi-sensorial "landscape” of projects made in Italy and Africa starting from 2000 by the Australian artist Virginia Ryan, dealing with three fundamental themes: the territory, memory, and identity. Sound settings created with the collaboration of the American anthropologist and musician Steven Feld accompany the visual work. Starting from 2001, Ryan has realized many works investigating Western Africa as seen through her position as a foreigner and as an artist. The exhibition also includes some of her most recent works presented in Italy and has to do with the most modern trans-national themes, such as racial issues and ecology.
Projects made in Western Africa and Italy. “Ryan uses the most ancient and modern techniques and languages for a study that recently attracted her attention on the extraordinary and restless reality of Western Africa. Thanks to the richness and exuberance of her images and writing, Virginia Ryan, who presently lives and works between Italy and Ghana has in fact built a unique work of survey on life, history, and nature of the African country.” Achille Bonito Oliva
Virginia Ryan, born in Melbourne and grown up between Australia and Italy, attended the National School of the Arts of Canberra and the University of Edinburgh. She has also lived in Egypt, Brazil, Scotland, and the former Yugoslavia. Since 1995 she’s been living in Italia, working in Trevi, in the province of Perugia. She is an artist, a writer and an art therapist. Since 2000, she’s also opened a studio in Accra (Ghana).She founded the Foundation for Contemporary Art in Ghana, is an associate professor of the New York University in Ghana and a member of the Pan African Circle of Artists (Lagos, Nigeria). She often returns to Africa to continue her survey on the African coastal territory, a project she undertook in 2003, Castaways. |
