Fetissoes by Kialy Tihngang

Event, Exhibitions, Free, In Person, Past Exhibitions

Friday 6th October – Sunday 26th November 2023

God's House Tower, Town Quay Road, Southampton, SO14 2NY

Fetissoes was a body of work by Kialy Tihngang, commissioned by ‘a space’ arts in partnership with Black History Month South and exhibiting at ‘a space’ arts’ headline venue, God’s House Tower, a 700-year-old ancient monument in the heart of Southampton’s Old Town.

For this commission, Kialy speculates that a group of enslaved African people jumped overboard their captors ship into the ocean and combined European maritime technology (the master’s tools) with fetishes (African religious objects with magical powers) to create tools to safely return home underwater. These tools take the form of six wearable sculptures, were displayed in the Main Gallery space.

An accompanying video showing the artefacts in action was exhibited in the Barker Mill Project Space.

The exhibition ran from 6th October 2023 to 26th November 2023 at God’s House Tower.

About the Artist

Kialy Tihngang is a multidisciplinary artist based in Glasgow. As a British-born Cameroonian, Kialy’s research-based practice focuses on colonial European misrepresentation, extraction, and demonisation of West African cultural practices, but also on her own misremembering, misreading, and romanticisation of said practices. Primarily, she designs artefacts from reimagined histories and speculated futures.

More information about the inspirations and influences behind Fetissoes which includes an interview between Kialy Tihngang and our Curator and Programme Manager Mia Delve, as well as an expanded exhibition text and an audio guide of the exhibition can be found below.