We are immensely grateful to Still Earth Holdings, our Founding Corporate Patron in 2022, for their transformative generosity. Their critical support has been instrumental in launching our Fellowship residency programme, enabling us to make a significant impact both locally and globally. Thanks to Still Earth Holdings, we have elevated local multidisciplinary creative practitioners to the world stage. Still Earth Holdings’ donation has empowered us to support talented G.A.S. Fellows such as Amanda Iheme with events and workshops for the local creative community during their residencies at G.A.S. Lagos. Additionally, their contribution has allowed us to grow G.A.S.’s local team and continue offering fully funded fellowships for local artists. These initiatives are crucial steps in strengthening the cultural and creative sector in Nigeria.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to Oyindamola Lami Adeyemi, the Executive Chairperson of Still Earth Holdings and a respected art collector. Ms Adeyemi emphasised that this donation is part of the company’s commitment to supporting the successful execution of G.A.S. Foundation’s various projects, stating: “Achieving this capital-intensive goal requires significant financial support from individuals and corporate bodies,”.
Amongst the residents who have already benefitted directly from Still Earth Holdings’ generous seed donation are G.A.S. Fellows Tobi Onabolu, Laeïla Adjovi and Amanda Iheme. Multidisciplinary artist Tobi Onabolu was awarded the G.A.S. Fellowship in 2022 and undertook his residency in April 2023. He spent the majority of his time in Nigeria at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise where the serene environment provided space to frame and contextualise his existing well-being practice whilst exploring notions of vibrations, performance and ritual within his native Yoruba culture. Upon his return to Lagos, Tobi exhibited Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? an immersive installation and performance that interrogated the process of liberating the subconscious mind and the body from external forces of control.
Tobi Onabolu's Ogungun (masquerade) performance during his presentation of Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?
Beninese-French storyteller and researcher Laeïla Adjovi joined Tobi as one of our seven G.A.S. Fellowship 2022 awardees. Crucial support from Still Earth Holdings allowed G.A.S. to increase the number of awarded opportunities and ensure her participation in her residency in April and May 2023. Laeïla’s practice typically presents as a mixture of photography, visual art, and research and focuses on cultural hybridity, multi-layered identities, visible and invisible borders, and African cultural heritage. She used the duration of her time at G.A.S. Lagos to research Yemoja rites and Yoruba oral literature, connecting with relevant cultural practitioners, and visiting iconic homesteads of Yoruba culture, such as Abeokuta, Ife and Osogbo. To conclude her residency Laeïla produced a report of her findings which serves as a resource for future residents interested in incorporating similar research strands into their practice.
Prof. Owolabi, from the Centre for Yoruba Language Engineering (CYLE), Ibadan, and Labake Owolabi, secretary of CYLE, during Laeïla's meeting at Ibadan University.
For Amanda Iheme, who emerged as one of the awardees of the G.A.S. Fellowship 2024, the eight-week residency involved in-depth research into African artists, particularly photographers, and the initiation of a comprehensive research study of vernacular and contemporary southwestern Nigerian architecture, as well as tropical modernism. Engaging meaningfully with the local community was intrinsic to Amanda’s residency aspirations. On 17th May she hosted Focus on Four, a photography showcase that spotlighted the work of local practitioners Alexander "Lex Ash" Ashimole, Laura Osare, Nengi Nelson, and Ọlájídé Ayẹni. The event interrogated their explorations of form, space, urban environments, and personal and collective identities. In the lead-up to Focus on Four, the participating photographers took part in virtual mentoring sessions with Amanda designed to strengthen their vocabulary in discussing their practice and developing their capacity to present their work.
Amanda's residency retrospective presentation Ugwu-001.
To mark the end of her residency Amanda shared her research and findings at G.A.S. as part of a residency retrospective titled Ugwu-001. Drawing from the Igbo word "ugwu," meaning "dignity," this event divulged the core of Amanda's study focus during this period and its rigorous examination of Nigeria's affordable housing crisis.
As we work towards facilitating our final residencies and projects of the year, we’re looking forward to welcoming the last Still Earth Holdings supported G.A.S. Fellow of 2024, Kosisochukwu Nnebe. The conceptual artist's practice draws inspiration from postcolonial and Black feminist thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Sylvia Wynter. Working across installation, lens-based media and sculpture, Kosi engages with topics that range from the politics of Black visibility, embodiment and spatiality to the use of foodways as counter-archives of colonial histories.
Portrait of incoming G.A.S. Fellow Kosisochukwu Nnebe. Image courtesy of the artist.
Kosi, who will be completing her residency at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikise, is currently presenting solo exhibition The Seeds We Carry at the SAW Centre in Ottawa, Canada. The show expands on her investigations into the historic concealment of poison in cassava under the nails of enslaved peoples, among other acts of resistance against their enslavers.
Our donors are instrumental in supporting our distinctive interdisciplinary residencies, research, education programmes, and public events. We want to thank Still Earth Holdings for their contribution to the growth, success and delivery of Yinka Shonibare Foundation and Guest Artists Space Foundation's programmes.
Header image credit: Y.S.F. and G.A.S. Founder and Chair Yinka Shonibare CBE RA with Oyindamola Lami Adeyemi, Executive Chairperson, Still Earth Holdings.