Inside the spellbinding new exhibition curated by Ronan McKenzie

Flowing pink fabric rushes past its counterpart tinted in red – their soft fabric hands touch the walls of the glass they are encased in, as if wishing to open an invisible door, or extend beyond the wood and glass panel that comprises the window display of the Bernie Grant Arts Centre. Guest curated by artist Ronan McKenzie, the exhibition What I Know is Possible, part of Black Art Matters, a three-year visual arts project at the Centre, immerses the viewers in a dreamscape for the future through the works of six contemporary artists. 

This is the second iteration of McKenzie’s curatorship at Tottenham’s BGAC, with the first one kickstarting their visual arts programme. “I was really excited to work in a space so close to where I was born and grew up in the midst of such a residential area,” she says. “Hopefully, that encourages people who live nearby to see great artworks and programming on their doorstep.” Curating for McKenzie is an opportunity to bring different kinds of artworks and artists in the same room. “Being able to have artists like Marlene Smith in the same space that Sergio Pontier shows his work feels really special,” she continues. Two black boys stand in a field of peonies in one of Pontier’s photographs, one of them wearing a NY emblazoned cap. Growing up multiracial in Spain, the photographer rues the lack of racial representation around him. “I had to find my own way through my blackness,” he tells Dazed. “Photography was my guiding path.” 

McKenzie considers how her own work and Pontier’s work on display both exhibit a sense of freedom, and how the work speaks to each other. “There’s an invitation to find strength through tactility or colour,” she says.

In another image by Mabintou Badjie, a boy in a spiderman costume sits in a pink-drenched landscape, his grandfather behind him lost in thought. The artist grew up without a connection to her Gambian roots, which she delves into through family albums, juxtaposing images of her now-deceased grandfather and her brother. “In Gambia, we hold the belief that you inherit qualities from your namesake,” she says. “I felt it was important to spend time with my brother, as he was facing some challenges. I wanted to give Buba a moment of tranquility – a chance to dream.” 

For both exhibitions, McKenzie worked with artists whose works she was interested in or had worked with in the past. “When I began working on this exhibition, it was more an invitation to collaborate,” she says. Using a metaphor for a mantis shrimp that perceives the world through 12 channels of colour, with chanting voices that taught people how to say ‘colour’ in different languages, composer and producer Melo-Zed wanted to explore the idea that there are things beyond what we know as possible through a soundscape. “I wanted to provoke people to be surprised and excited by sound,” he says, “and ask questions.” 

McKenzie met floral designer Hazel Gardiner while programming for her ‘Home’ space. “I was really interested in creating a more immersive approach for the second exhibition,” says McKenzie. “I invited her to create something that could add the peaceful feeling of nature in the exhibition space.” For Pontier, flowers are equated with joy whereas, for Gardiner, they reflect the decay and rebirth of human experience. “I believe flowers can help us connect to ourselves, others and the world around us. Each flower chosen becomes an act of imagining the future,” reflects Gardiner. “A wish, a hope, a possibility.”  

Exploring the boundless nature of dreaming, McKenzie introduced the multidisciplinary artist Shanti Bell to the space, which we encounter even before entering the gallery. A pink textile sculpture juts into the air above, which explores the idea of trying things out and manifesting them in reality. “This sculpture has a wooden frame as its backdrop, but it reaches beyond the frame, expanding outwards as a way of release and freedom,” she explains. “Having the ability to walk under and around the sculpture gives you this sense if freedom to experience how it morphs and curves within the gallery space.” Imagination is an important aspect of the exhibition, adds McKenzie. “Having the confidence to aim for something that feels like it could potentially be a dream,” she says, “but then before we know it, it becomes real.” 

What I Know is Possible is running at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre (Tottenham, London) until December 14, 2024.