Where Cloudy Waters Collide...: Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

Addis Fine Art is pleased to share that Merikokeb Berhanu will be featured in a group show at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, titled Where cloudy waters collide… 

The exhibition brings together works by Merikokeb Berhanu, Nasim Hantehzadeh, Isaac Julien, Abdoulaye Konaté, Tamar Mason, José Vera Matos, and Alyina Zaidi, each of whom explores notions of relation, opacity, and rootedness. Through subverting empirical cartography in favour of mapping the ‘in-between’ – the body and the mind, the mythological and the ritualistic, the ‘illicit’ and the invisible – they interrogate inter-cultural exchanges, reimagining and deliberately questioning official accounts of the world.  

Deriving its title from Derek Walcott’s epic poem Omeros (1990), which explores humanity’s connection to place, history and nature, Isaac Julien’s Paradise Omeros (2002), expands on this premise, delving deep into the socio-political landscape of people of the Caribbean diaspora. The exhibition will present photographic works taken during the making of the film; rather than films stills, each was shot separately on a medium format camera. Capturing the idyllic scenery of St. Lucia and using the metaphor of the sea as a space for cross-cultural exchange, the series looks at the hybrid mental states that arise from living between cultures. 

Also traversing this landscape of cultural integration is Merikokeb Berhanu, who is including two works made both prior and after her relocation in 2017 from Ethiopia to the United States. Capturing the feelings of her varied experiences of living in these two distinct countries, Berhanu creates works that echo subterranean forms, hinting at the tension between nature and urbanity and how this dichotomy feeds into her own experiences of emigration. 

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

6 Heddon Street

London

W1B 4BT

Opening Hours

Tuesday to Friday: 10:00-18:00

Saturday: 11:00-18:00

Monday and Sunday: Closed