Sweatshop

For her show, Grace Ndiritu has created a new painting and textile installation entitled SWEATSHOP. It examines the idea of the sweatshop and the objects they produce from three juxtaposing, yet, overlapping angles: i.e.

The Artist Studio – artists, who make objects to feed the art market; Third World Countries – where poorly paid workers make products to feed the luxury, fashion, global consumer market; and Indigenous Tribes who produce culture and spirituality to feed the commodified New Age movement in the West.

Works featured include Post-Hippie Pop Abstraction paintings and drawings (2015-2018) and Cult of The Kimono (2019), a new series of hand-printed kimonos and textile hangings from her COVERSLUTC fashion and economic research project made during a residency at Manoeuvre in Belgium.

This exhibition at INDA Gallery is part of THE YEAR OF BLACK HEALING (2020), a year-long international programme of exhibitions, performances and talks focusing on Grace Ndiritu’s work, leading up to the BLACK HEALING exhibition in June 2020. It touches on topics, such as afro-futurism, activism, spiritual practice, black culture, and neo-liberalism.