Human Acts: Of Pain and Possibility: Arda Asena, Samuel Nnorom, Xanthe Somers,
“Beauty is not a luxury, rather it is a way of creating possibility in the space of enclosure, a radical act of subsistence, an embrace of our terribleness, transfiguration of the given. It is a will to adorn, a proclivity for the baroque, and the love of too much.” - Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals
Galerie Revel is pleased to present ‘Human Acts: Of Pain and Possibility’, a group exhibition featuring Xanthe Somers, Samuel Nnorom and Arda Asena. The exhibition explores the interconnectedness of power, examining how systems of extraction, colonial legacies, and social inequality continue to shape our world, influencing both our surroundings and the ways we relate to one another. Through their work, the artists explore how systems of power and extraction persist in shaping both individual and collective lives, while also posing radical questions about transformation, care and survival.
Inspired by Han Kang’s novel of the same title, which delves into the lingering effects of trauma through the experiences of victims and the bereaved, ‘Human Acts’ highlights the cycles of suffering that follow violence. Yet as instructed by cultural theorist Saidiya Hartman, is a reminder that in the face of catastrophe, beauty emerges—not as a luxury, but as a radical act of subsistence, [ where acts of subsistence are those that are not only essential for survival but also transformative in their defiance of oppressive forces.]
‘Human Acts: Of Pain and Possibility’ draws from the belief that human acts, however shaped by violence and oppression, contain the potential for transfiguration. Through a diverse range of mediums—including clay, fibre, Ankara fabric, wood, and grass—the artists reflect on how terror and beauty coexist, and how material, colour, texture and form might transform towards gestures that propose acts of collective healing, resistance and renewal.
Somers’ work interrogates practices defined as ‘women’s work’ in a post-colonial context, with a particular focus on Zimbabwe, her country of birth. Through the metaphor of weaving, while working primarily with clay, Somers reflects on how materiality itself becomes a visual language of history and survival. Similarly, Nnorom’s soft sculptures, composed of the famous Ankara fabric ubiquitous in West African countries, use the shape of "bubbles" to evoke the invisible ties that bind human experience through networks of labour, identity and belonging while Asena, whose work is being presented at Galerie Revel for the first time, explores modes of resistance through hand-woven tapestries that embody the radical labour of care. Together, these artists use materiality as both a mnemonic device and a tool for transformation, engaging with the practices of mending and assemblage in ways that are at once personal and political.
In acknowledging interwoven legacies, ‘Human Acts: Of Pain and Possibility’ proposes a space for both reflection and action— through a confrontation of past injustices and an imagination of the ways in which we might move toward possibility.
