In Larry Achiampong (b. 1984) & David Blandy's (b. 1976) collaborative practice, they share an interest in popular culture and the post-colonial position. They examine communal and personal heritage, using performance to investigate the self as a fiction, devising alter-egos to point at their divided selves.
Their main body of work, The Finding Fanon Series, 2015-2018, is inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961). Throughout the series, Achiampong and Blandy negotiate Fanon’s ideas, examining the politics of race, racism and decolonisation, and how these societal issues affect our relationship amidst an age of new technology, popular culture and globalisation.
Other projects include The Wall and The Incongruous, 2018, commissioned for Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, a film that combines footage of Hadrian’s Wall with computer gaming visuals to generate a new immersive installation that tells a fantastical tale of a land that isolated itself into near extinction; Genetic Automata, which was presented at Arts Catalyst, Centre for Art, Science + Technology in London. Referencing the history of the theory of evolution, and the relationship between Charles Darwin and his taxidermy teacher John Edmonstone, a freed slave.
Achiampong & Blandy’s work has been shown both within the UK and abroad. They have had solo exhibitions at Art Exchange, Colchester Arts Catalyst, London; Bury Art Museum, Moving Image Gallery, Bury; National Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth; Tate Modern, London; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas, USA; Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, USA; Praksis, Oslo, Norway; Iniva & 198 Gallery, London.
Recent and upcoming projects include Worldbuilding, Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (Germany), and The Wall and The Incongruous, commissioned for Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (UK).
For their most recent solo exhibition with the gallery please click here
Their main body of work, The Finding Fanon Series, 2015-2018, is inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, (1925-1961). Throughout the series, Achiampong and Blandy negotiate Fanon’s ideas, examining the politics of race, racism and decolonisation, and how these societal issues affect our relationship amidst an age of new technology, popular culture and globalisation.
Other projects include The Wall and The Incongruous, 2018, commissioned for Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, a film that combines footage of Hadrian’s Wall with computer gaming visuals to generate a new immersive installation that tells a fantastical tale of a land that isolated itself into near extinction; Genetic Automata, which was presented at Arts Catalyst, Centre for Art, Science + Technology in London. Referencing the history of the theory of evolution, and the relationship between Charles Darwin and his taxidermy teacher John Edmonstone, a freed slave.
Achiampong & Blandy’s work has been shown both within the UK and abroad. They have had solo exhibitions at Art Exchange, Colchester Arts Catalyst, London; Bury Art Museum, Moving Image Gallery, Bury; National Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau, The Bahamas; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth; Tate Modern, London; Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas, USA; Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, USA; Praksis, Oslo, Norway; Iniva & 198 Gallery, London.
Recent and upcoming projects include Worldbuilding, Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (Germany), and The Wall and The Incongruous, commissioned for Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (UK).
For their most recent solo exhibition with the gallery please click here
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, A lament for power, Installation view at Art Exchange, University of Essex, 2020
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, The Grid, Installation view at Copperfield, London, 2019. Photo: Eva Herzog
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Finding Fanon Part 1, 2015, 4K UHD Single Channel Video Colour, Stereo Sound. Photo: Claire Barrett.
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, A Terrible Fiction, 2019, 4K UHD colour video with sound, 11'51''
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, A Terrible Fiction, 2019, 4K UHD colour video with sound, 11'51''
Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, FF Gaiden: Alternative, 2016, 4K UHD Single Channel Video Colour With Stereo Sound, 11'03''
Group Exhibitions
2022 - 2023 Worldbuilding, Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany 2021 Future Ages Will Wonder, FACT, Liverpool, UK (until 2022) One song is very much like another, and the boat is always from afar, curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai Times Museum, Guangzhou, China Black Spatial Imaginaries, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Scotland Untitled: Art on the conditions of our time, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK 2020 Stay Home: Art in Uncertain Times, Arts Council Collection Online Milan Machinima Festival 2020, Milan, Italy In Pursuit of Images, AA Gallery, London, UK Go On Being So, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Penzance, UK Digital Cultures Festival 2020, Warsaw, Poland 2019 Digital Imaginaries, ZKM: Center for Art & Media Karlsruhe, Germany 2018 Film London Jarman Award, Whitechapel Gallery, London and touring to venues in the UK Throwing Gestures, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Africa in Motion Film Festival, Scotland Nature as Data, Jing’an Sculpture Park, JingAnSi, Shangai, China Transmediale Festival, Berlin, Germany Revolt & Revolutions, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK Finding Fanon Trilogy, Screening, Nottingham Contemporary, UK States of Play: Roleplay Reality, FACT, Liverpool, UK Idea of North, BALTIC, Tyneside, UK A Utopian Stage, curated by Archaeology of the Final Decade, Dhakaa Art Summit, Bangladesh 2017 Unmaking the Mask, BAMcinematek, Brooklyn, USA Afro-tech Screening, Hartware MedienKunstverein, Dortmund, Germany Artist Film Weekender, Home, Manchester, UK Screen City Biennial, online screening, Norway Trauma & Revival, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland L’Autre… De l’image à la réalité, Maison Populaire Contemporary Art Centre, Paris, France Wilderness Way, Mima, Middlesbrough, UK Posthuman ComplexitiesFilm Program, mumok, Vienna, Austria Untitled: Art on the conditions of our time, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK Screening: Finding Fanon Part 1 & 2, Live Art Festival, Cape Town, South Africa Black Film British Cinema Conference, ICA, London, UK Film Cologne, Art Cologne 2017, Germany 2016 Still (The) Barbarians, Eva International 2016: Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick, Ireland Cycle Music & Arts Festival, Kopavogur, Iceland Wysing Poly, Residency, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire, UK Experimental Motion, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, UK Histories of a Vanishing Present: A Prologue, The Mistake Room, Los Angles, USA Game Video / Art. A Survey, part of the "XXI Triennale International Exhibition. 21st Century. Design after Design", Milan, Italy 2015 The 59th BFI London Film Festival, BFI Southbank, London Ghosts, Hangar, Lisbon, Portugal The Vanishing Point of History: L’Été photographique de Lectoure, Centre d'art et photographie de Lectoure, France Open Souce Contemporary Arts Festival, London, UK Wir Sind Alle Berliner:1884-2014, ICI, Berlin, Germany Alternative 23, IMT Gallery, London, UK 2014 Collections of Collections, V&A Friday Late, London, UK 3rd Bienale of Bahia, Modern Art Museum of Bahia, Brazil Digital Africa, as part of 'Africa Utopias', Southbank Centre, London, UK Biters: Larry Achiampong & David Blandy as part of Test Run, Modern Art Oxford, UK After/Hours/Drop/Box **LIVE**, Spike Island, Bristol, UK Residencies Praksis, Oslo in Norway Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire Awards Elephant Trust award and support from Arts Council England. They have been shortlisted for the Film London Jarman award 2018 |