On Friday 13 March, Resurgence: Craft Reimagined, an exhibition curated by Dazed Club member Ajahee Sekkm-Miles, opens to the public at The Gallery at Hackney Downs Studios. Sekkm-Miles responded to a Dazed Club open call with her curatorial proposal, and was selected from 60 applications to bring her idea to life with a budget awarded by Hackney Downs Studios. The selection committee was impressed by her vision, which shows a deep reverence towards heritage and memory while championing modern artists working with traditional craft practices.

“My curatorial practice is rooted in memory – whether it is my own or of those who came before me, I carry the memories with me and reference them within contemporary spaces and cultural discourse”, Sekkm-Miles says. Resurgence is inspired by the stories and creations of trailblazing Black women artists Lady Dosei Kwali, Faith Ringgold, Noria Mabasa, and Bisa Butler, who draw deeply from African or African-diasporic cultural traditions, particularly in craft-based mediums. For Sekkm-Miles, their work reflects the shift and expansion of contemporary art as we know it. Throughout history, craft practices have mainly been learned generationally through traditions and practical usage. Within modern contemporary art, craftsmanship has excelled and is still used as an archival tool, holding periods of time in place to ensure remembrance and prevent narrative erasure. 

The four artists whose work will feature in the exhibition – Favour Jonathan, Shayla Marshall, Ṣọlá Olúlòde, and Tyreis Holder – were handpicked by Sekkm-Miles not only for their talent but due to their commitment to redefining their connection to their history and traditions. In the exhibition, their minds and hands act as time capsules, preserving and reflecting on the past, transmuting the threads into their work as an act of resilience and future worldbuilding.

Says Sekkm-Miles, “Art must reflect the world; there is a duty we have as creators to find brighter, innovative, nuanced ways to continue passing down our cultural stories, history, languages, and traditions. Whether we have been directly taught by an elder, researched it in a book, or were just born with the gift of being skilled, we must always remember who we are and how far we have come. Resurgence is a collection of these ancestral memories, reminding us that we are an extension of them. Using the same rituals and techniques to create pathways to freedom for ourselves and those to follow, turning generational dreams into reality.”

“I hope visitors to the exhibition will feel the accumulation of history and generational stories while encountering the work of these innovative contemporary artists – a rare moment where we feel acutely aware of the presence of the past in the present”, says Emily Dinsdale, Dazed’s Art & Photography Editor.

The exhibition is open to the public at The Gallery at Hackney Downs Studios from Friday 13 March until Thursday 2 April. Dazed Club will host a Private View of the exhibition on Thursday 12 March, 6-9pm – spaces are limited, RSVP via the Dazed Club app.

There is also going to be a public programme of events accompanying the exhibition. Watch out for news on how to attend on the Dazed Club app.