Ayesha Hameed: Brown Atlantis

Presented here is the first solo exhibition of London-based artist Ayesha Hameed in the Netherlands. Over the past decade, the artist has developed a long-term body of work titled Black Atlantis. In this, she explores the Black Atlantic—the fusion of Black cultures with other cultures from around the Atlantic—and its afterlives in contemporary illegalized migration at sea, oceanic environments, and outer space. More recently, Hameed has extended her attention to the Indian Ocean world: Brown Atlantis is a new project that explores the interwoven histories of enslavement with indentureship, looking at subaquatic worlds and oceanic ecologies.

Hameed’s solo exhibition presents a newly commissioned installation together with two recent textile-audio works that form part of Brown Atlantis. Her new work emerges from a recent research trip to Sri Lanka, investigating how coconuts—their origin myths, cellular structure, and circulation—can be seen to recapitulate histories of indigenous migration and colonial extraction across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Her multi-channel sound and textile installations focus on historical events situated in subaquatic zones, highlighting the consequences of colonial occupation on both bodies and environments.

During the course of the exhibition, a new episode of her ongoing radio program Brown Atlantis, broadcast on Movement Radio and Radio alAhara, will be hosted in the galleries and made available online. For more information, visit the ENGAGE section on our website.