I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies review – ‘An exhibition to which we can well relate’

Thato Toeba, Man on Fire, 2017. Image: courtesy of the artist

Art may transcend borders, but those who make it are imbricated in places, cultures and political institutions. In the exhibition I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies, Autograph Galley has brought together a dozen artists who use collage and photomontage to render rootedness, dislocation, and the dismemberment of heritage.

Spanning a period of several decades, the show includes the work of luminaries like Sunil Gupta, Reena Saini Kallat and Brook Andrew alongside a range of up-and-coming figures such as Thato Toeba and Jess Atieno.

Many of the artists have roots in activism, where photography is a tool used to document oppression. But photos are not simply ‘there’; they can also be lost, erased or distorted, processes used in this exhibition to figure the (often unwanted) protrusion of one culture into another.

Sabrina Tirvengadum, Family, 2023. Image: courtesy the artist

Colonialism and resistance to colonial exploitation are a major theme. Wendimagegn Belete’s monumental Unveil installation of archival images of Ethiopian resistance fighters testifies to how the ancient African state successfully defied efforts by Italy to colonise it.

But then there are also Brook Andrew’s searing images of Aboriginal First Nation Australians who have been literally expunged by the Western gaze.

The most beguiling works on display are perhaps those of Sheida Soleimani, whose theatrically-arranged still lifes embed layers of meaning in simple objects with enormous symbolic weight.

Sunil Gupta, from the series Trespass, 1992-1995. Image: Collection of Autograph, London

Equally poignant are Arpita Akhanda’s maps and family photos that are cut apart and woven together to ‘pixellated’ effect, evoking the breakage of memory as kinship networks are torn apart by politics.

So many of us in these parts have fragmented backgrounds which embroider our lives in lovely ways, at the same time scarring us with memories of loss and cultural damage; this is an exhibition to which we can well relate.

I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies runs until 20 March at Autograph Gallery, Rivington Place, EC2A 3BA.