Virgile Ittah
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“Here’s Looking at You,” Virgile Ittah & Kai Yoda, 12 October – 12 November, 2014
Joanna/Shiro, 2014, In collaboration with Kai Yoda, Mixed wax, marble dust, earth pigment, latex, dimension variable.
Man Reclining, 2014, Mixed wax, marble dust, earth pigment.
Echoué au seuil de la raison (Failed/Aground at the Threshold of Reason), 2014
Pair of antique iron cast bed, mixed wax, marble dust, wood,
388x723x720cm
Dreams are Guilty, Absolute, and Silent by Fire, 2014
Mixed wax, marble dust, antique industrial stools,
Dimension variable
Regarding the Pain of the Other, 2013
Mixed wax, marble dust, antique church chair
450x260x380cm
Regarding the Pain of the Other, 2013
Mixed wax, marble dust, antique church chair
450x260x380cm
For Man Would Remember Each Murmur, 2012-2013
Mixed wax, marble dust,fabric
1200x180x365cm
For Man Would Remember Each Murmur, 2012-2013
Mixed wax, marble dust,fabric
1200x180x365cm
For Man Would Remember Each Murmur, 2012-2013
Mixed wax, marble dust,fabric
1200x180x365cm
From the series: Daniel in collaboration with Kai Yoda, Dyptique Polaroids, instant film 8×10 inch, 2013
From the series: Daniel in collaboration with Kai Yoda, Dyptique Polaroids, instant film 8×10 inch, 2013
Informed by her family history of exile and constant wandering, Virgile Ittah’s work explores the notion of isolation, nostalgia and the impossibility of return. This investigation is wrought through an attempt to explore the body as a territory upon which questions about the nature of subjective experience and the workings of the psyche, can be perceived and described.
The material choices Ittah makes and the processes she selects are critical to her approach and to the intended reading of the work; wax functions as a means to explore the alteration of the body and the consequences of this changed state on our perception of the subject.
Her probing of the spaces between subject and object, corporeal and imaginative truth, points the viewer to socio-political questions about control and power. Such questions are explored in relation to assimilation into Western society and a forced state of alterity; of falling between national and cultural identities.
The notion of ‘complete installation’, in which the viewer becomes part of and alters the work as a constant performance, is fundamental to her practice. In creating full site specific installations and in altering the space, the work aims to blur the boundaries between the past and the present, fantasy and reality.
CV
2015
‘A woman’s hand’, group exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, September 2015.
Hus Gallery, London, UK, solo exhibition in collaboration with Hitomi Kai Yoda, January 2015.
2014
Lychee 1 Gallery, London UK, solo exhibition in collaboration with Hitomi Kai Yoda, October 2014.
The futur can wait, London, UK, group exhibition curated by Zavier Ellis, October 2014.
Royal British Society of Sculptor, London, UK, Bursary award 2014 exhibition, September-October 2014.
Activism and Inactivism, group exhibition, University of Roehampton, London, UK, curated by Jack Tan, September 2014.
Catlin Prize Exhibition, group exhibition, London, UK
New Order II, group exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Young Gods, group exhibition, Charlie Smith gallery, Griffin Gallery, London, UK
2013
New Sensations 2013, group exhibition, Channel 4/ Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
‘The Open West’, group exhibition, Cheltenham gallery + museum, UK,in collaboration with Hitomi Kai Yoda
‘The Open West’, group exhibition, Newark Park, Gloucestshire, Uk, in collaboration with Hitomi Kai Yoda
‘RCA Show’, group exhibition, Royal college of art, London, UK
2012
Camera Clara Prize, group exhibition, Gallery UPP, Paris, France
‘Inspiring Matter’, group exhibition, Gulbenkian Gallery, London, UK
‘Fair’, group exhibition, Edinburgh college of art, Edinburgh, UK
EDUCATION
2011/ 2013/ MA, Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London
AWARD/ COMPETITION
Awarded of a bursary from the Royal British society of Sculptors, UK, 2014
Selected for Catlin guide and Catlin Prize Exibhition, London, UK, 2014
Selected for Young Gods, Charlie Smith Gallery, London, UK, 2014
Selected for New Sensations, Channel 4 et Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2013
Camera Clara prize, 2nd prize, France, 2013