From 2021 to 2022, Grand Union worked with British-Barbadian artist Alberta Whittle to present a new, long-term body of work, ‘Congregation (Creating Dangerously)’.
Installation view of Alberta Whittle’s ‘We gather and dream of New Congregations’ at Grand Union, Birmingham. Photography Patrick Dandy, 2022.
Using public sculpture, film, workshops, and community gardening, the 2022 Commonwealth Games provided a crucial backdrop for this long-term project which developed over 18 months. The body of work sought to address and redress issues surrounding the use and ownership of land. The project was supported by a film commission, that served as an inquiry into cultural amnesia relating to conditions of freedom under the hostile environment.
The Minerva Garden
The Bothy: Congregation
Film – Congregation (Creating Dangerously)
Harvest Dinner
We Gather and Dream of New Congregations
About the Artist
Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, and curator. She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9.
Alberta Whittle’s creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness. She choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture, and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces.