Brighton CCA is delighted to present A Quiet Fire, the first major exhibition of works in a UK institution by Malawian artist Billie Zangewa. The exhibition will feature a new large-scale work commissioned by Brighton CCA: an epic, site-specific seascape inspired by Sussex for which Zangewa has adopted the format and scale of the classical canon, from grand tapestries to history painting, to chronicle the experience of the marginalised and under-represented. The exhibition will also feature a capsule retrospective of Zangewa’s work from the last ten years. A Quiet Fire will tour to John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, and Tramway, Glasgow across 2023.
The newly commissioned work is the artist’s largest to date and is a response to her visit to Brighton and the location of the gallery. As with all her works there is a balance and tension within them between an empowered sense of independence and the casual bigotry and racism of the everyday experience. The artist talks about this new work as being something of a turning point - a more joyful perspective on life - and the new scale of the piece is a reflection of that, as being a sense of a grand narrative putting previous troubles in the shade.
In her work Zangewa creates intricate figurative collages from hand-stitched fragments of raw silk challenging the historical stereotypes of objectification and exploitation of Black women. From her earliest works, embroideries depicting remembered botanical scenes from Botswana, Zangewa has transitioned to cityscapes focusing on her experience as a woman in the city of Johannesburg. These works led her to think more critically about how women view themselves and what the visualization of the female gaze, through self-portraiture, could look like.
Brighton CCA Director Ben Roberts adds, “There is inspiration there in that this new large work has been produced in such challenging conditions in South Africa - with power cuts, economic hardship all on top of racial tension. That she is able to produce work of this kind at all says a great deal”
A Quiet Fire also includes capsule retrospective of Zangewa’s work from the last ten years. These works, reflective of both a domestic life and her determination to be seen on her own terms, speak powerfully to the artists’ ongoing mission to challenge the mainstream cultural, racial and social silos in which Black women are placed. Through the method of their making and narrative content, Zangewa shows gendered labour in a socio-political context, where the domestic sphere becomes a pretext for a deeper understanding of the construction of identity, questions around gender stereotypes, and racial prejudice. Reflecting the artists’ life and experience as a single mother, which she refers to as a ‘daily feminism’, the works define a space for representation of Black female domestic life, ambition, hope and identity.
Learn more on Brighton CCA’s website.