Bluecoat News

05 Aug 2021

Press Release: Rosa-Johan Uddoh's 'Practice Makes Perfect' to show at the Bluecoat from October 2021

Press Release: Rosa-Johan Uddoh's 'Practice Makes Perfect' to show at the Bluecoat from October 2021: Rosa-Johan Uddoh, 'Breaking point', 2021, installation view. Courtesy the artist. Image credit: Anna Lukala

15 October 2021 - 23 January 2022

The Bluecoat is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Rosa-Johan Uddoh (born 1993, Croydon), an interdisciplinary artist working towards radical self-love, inspired by Black feminist practice and writing. The artist has previously performed at Bluecoat as part of New Contemporaries 2018. The exhibition is open to the public from 15 October 2021 - 23 January 2022.

Practice Makes Perfect is focused on the timely subject of childhood education in Britain. Rosa-Johan Uddoh looks at how schooling forms an early understanding of what it means to be British, but also at what within this is marginalised or left out. Responding to current debates about Black history within the National Curriculum, Uddoh has approached creating new work for this exhibition as therapeutic ‘wish fulfilment’ in a time of uncertainty and tension.

The exhibition includes a major new work by Uddoh - a large-scale collage - which investigates the historical figure of Balthazar. According to tradition, Balthazar was one of the three biblical Magi and later a Saint, who offered the gift of Myrrh to Jesus. Depicted since medieval times as a lone black figure in artistic imagery of the Nativity scene or ‘Adoration’, this King is often the first time school children encounter a Black person of importance in a performance.

Historically, Balthazar is also a figure through which white artists and their patrons in Europe first constructed ‘Blackness’. Through her research, with the assistance of Nasra Abdullahi, Uddoh has found and catalogued around 150 historical ‘Balthazars’ featured in ‘Adoration’ paintings made throughout European history. Thinking about the real, Black European sitters for these paintings, Uddoh’s billboard-style collage brings these Black kings together in friendship groups on a long march of solidarity to change the West.

The exhibition also includes works on paper, video and new works that adapt the exhibition to the interior and exterior spaces of the Bluecoat. A related programme of public events will be released September 2021. 

Artist, Rosa Johan Uddoh comments: 

“I am so excited to be coming back to the Bluecoat and presenting work in Liverpool again. Spending time in Liverpool before the pandemic, as a fellow at the John Moores School of Art and Design, and exhibiting and talking with artists & activists based in the city, had a huge influence on my thinking as a young artist and teacher. I’m looking forward to putting my work around black identity and education in conversation with people doing the work here again and learning lots more. “    

Uddoh’s exhibition will show alongside a solo presentation by American Artist Deborah Roberts (Austin, Texas, 1962). Both exhibitions will be open to the public from 15 October 2021 - 23 January 2022 and explore the formation of identity.   

Head of Programme, Bluecoat, Marie-Anne McQuay says of the exhibition: 

“I’m so delighted to welcome Rosa-Johan Uddoh back to Bluecoat, after her performance in 2018 and her subsequent year-long New Contemporaries residency at Liverpool John Moores School of Art & Design. Practice Makes Perfect is a timely exhibition which explores childhood education in the UK and absent narratives around Black history from a deeply personal perspective. It’s exquisitely crafted, thought provoking, poignant, humourous and part of a very live debate”. 

The exhibition is also accompanied by a new publication published by Focal Point Gallery and Book Works in partnership with the Bluecoat, Liverpool and The Bower, London which will be launched during the run of the show. The book comprises a collection of scripts by Uddoh, each aiming to interrogate how a particular character in popular culture performs (and produces) Black British identity. Presented as scripts, sheet music & instructional worksheets, the reader is encouraged to insert their own experiences and interpretations, in their head or through live performances of their own. Selected texts will also be exhibited as works on paper within the exhibition. The book is designed by Rose Nordin. 

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For image credits please see image captions

Rosa Logo Block

Contact Information

Notes to editors

About the artist:

Rosa-Johan Uddoh (born 1993, Croydon), lives and works in London. Through performance, film, installation and sound, Uddoh explores an infatuation with places, objects and celebrities in British popular culture, and the effects of these on self-formation. She is influenced by her architectural background, rooting stories in specific spaces and materials.

Solo presentations include ‘Studies for Impartiality’, Jupiter Woods and ‘Sphinx at the Crystal Palace’, Black Tower Projects (both in London, 2019). She has participated in group shows including: ‘Brand New Heavies’, Pioneer Works, New York,  ‘Learning by Doing: A politics of practice’, 68 Institute, Copenhagen, 2019; ‘Black Blossoms: If we are going to heal let it be glorious’, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, 2017 and ‘Mene Mene Tekel Parsin’, Cambridge, 2017. Recently she has screened work at East London Cable’s ‘TV Dinners E03’ at Tate Modern, 2019; and performed at ‘Art in the Age of Black Girl Magic’ Tate Britain, 2019 and ‘New Contemporaries’, South London Gallery, Liverpool John Moores School of Art & Design and the Bluecoat, Liverpool 2018. She was the 2020 Stuart Hall Library Resident

https://www.rosajohanuddoh.com/

Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery, ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ is presented in partnership with the Bluecoat, Liverpool with new works at Bluecoat supported by Jerwood Arts.

The accompanying book is co-commissioned by Focal Point Gallery and Bookworks, in partnership with the Bluecoat, Liverpool and The Bower, London

Public Programme at the Bluecoat is supported by Garfield Weston. 

 

About Bluecoat

The Bluecoat is Liverpool’s contemporary arts centre, a working home for artists, and a place where audiences can experience art in new ways. Thirty artists, craftspeople, arts organisations and independent retailers make up the Bluecoat’s creative community, using studios, making facilities and workspace just minutes from the main shopping district, Liverpool ONE. 

With a city centre location and striking, Grade I-listed building, the Bluecoat has a dynamic programme of exhibitions and events, an award-winning participation programme, bustling café and bistro. Our legendary garden and independent shops are open year-round. For over 300 years, the Bluecoat has stood at the centre of Liverpool life, a champion of visual art and visual culture, and a place that is always inspirational and open to all.

Bluecoat has presented significant solo shows of new work across the decades by artists including John Akomfrah, Jonathan Baldock, Sonia Boyce, Adham Faramawy, William Kentridge, Mark Leckey, Elaine Mitchener, Jade Montserrat, Grace Ndiritu, Yoko Ono and Larissa Sansour, alongside artists from the city including Frances Disley and Kiara Mohamed. 

https://www.thebluecoat.org.uk

About Bluecoat

About Bluecoat

Bluecoat is Liverpool's centre for the contemporary arts, located in the heart of the city. We develop a diverse programme of exhibitions showing national and international artists, as well as home grown talent, alongside performance, literature, and heritage events, and we are committed to finding new ways to open the arts to everyone.

Based in the city’s most historic building, we’re a creative hub and home to around thirty artists, arts organisations, craftspeople and retailers. We’re fierce champions of regional talent and internationally recognised as an inclusive arts centre.

We see the value in directly connecting audiences with artists and in encouraging mutual learning and exchange. Our renowned outreach programmes focus on those who would otherwise face barriers to involvement in the arts.