Watch Heather Agyepong discuss her series 'Habitus: Potential Realities' shown as part of Brighton Photo Biennial 2018.
2021 Update
We are thrilled to announce Heather Agyepong and Joanne Coates as the awardees of the fourth Jerwood/Photoworks Awards. This major opportunity supports early-career artists working with photography to make new work and significantly develop their practice. Now in their fourth edition, the Awards will support the two UK-based artists who are between one and ten years into their practice to realise ambitious new works over the next 12 months for a national touring exhibition launching in London at Jerwood Arts galleries at Jerwood Space in autumn 2022.
Read more about the Awards here.
In Habitus: Potential Realities, Agyepong challenges perspectives and re-imagines identities through a series of staged self-portraits.
Rule, Britannia!
Britannia, rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
FROM THE WORKS OF JAMES THOMSON, 1763
A series of twelve self-portraits by artist Heather Agyepong exploring the potentiality of British values in a new Europe.
At this time of uncertainty, the work poses questions about what has been learnt during the two years since the EU referendum and about our capacity for change. The project has been informed by young Brighton & Hove residents. 73% of young people voted remain and studies show an increased feeling of anxiety within this group since the June 2016 result.
Born out of her personal frustration at the referendum, Agyepong seeks empowerment by positively imagining what the future might hold.
Britannia is a British cultural icon personified as a goddess. Agyepong’s optimistic re-imagination depicts a new set of values that she hopes are relevant to us all.
Brighton Photo Biennial 2018
Examining the current state of flux as the United Kingdom redefines its role in Europe, the eighth Brighton Photo Biennial draws on one of the most important geopolitical events of our time. The UK’s status within the EU may be changing, but geographically we will remain part of Europe – with a shared history and intertwined future.
Much of the photography in Brighton Photo Biennial 2018 responds to this current uncertainty. Visitors are invited to examine Britain’s geography as an island: simultaneously divided and connected. They can also reflect on the ongoing refugee crisis and photography’s role in the construction of national identity. Photoworks’ own beginnings are revisited with the Cross Channel Photographic Mission, created to mark The Channel Tunnel physically linking Britain to the continent for the first time in 12,000 years.
Brighton Photo Biennial 2018 Official Filmmaker: Vasil Dzhagalov
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