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​​SINGING OFF KEY
4K Video, approximately 13 minutes
 

Exhibited at UNFAIR & PROSPECTS

 Westergasfabriek Amsterdam 2022  & Art Rotterdam 2023 

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Ayo moved from Uganda to the Netherlands thirteen years ago. The distance she experiences between memories of childhood in Uganda and the life she leads as an adult in the Netherlands was the starting point for this mixed media installation. The video in the installation, Singing Off Key explores in poetic fragments different experiences of individuals who are part of the African diaspora. The video begins with the image of a woman with a winnower, an object used to separate chaff from wheat. For Ayo, this shuffling, accompanied by a rhythmic sound, is a metaphor for the shuffling she herself experiences as a migrant. Part of herself she left behind in Uganda, and another part is in the Netherlands. In the film, members of the African diaspora in Uganda, the Netherlands and France share unique experiences of belonging and displacement. Ayo made the sculptures, paintings, photographs and text during filmic research. None has a hierarchy over the other.

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Text - Sarah Van Binsbergen, Prospects catalogue 2023