R.I.P. Germain

Dead Yard (2020)

03/09/2020 - 25/10/2020 (extended to 01/11/2020)

A solo exhibition at Cubitt, London, UK

Commissioned by Languid Hands as the first exhibition in their curatorial programme: No Real Closure

Exhibition: 3 Sep - 25 Oct 2020

Dead Yard is a solo exhibition by Luton-based artist R.I.P. Germain, curated by Languid Hands.

R.I.P Germain’s Dead Yard explores multiple forms of death and mourning relating to the artist's personal experiences and the ongoing viscerality of Black life in the UK. In addition to literal explorations of death and mourning, the exhibition gestures towards psychological and philosophical types of death: ego death, social death, and the mourning associated with incarceration, martyrdom and near death experiences.

Dead Yard invites audiences into a space for listening; for Sonny, Lloyd and Imarl, for Daniel, Damien, Becky, Josh and Alicia; for those lost without names and for those yet to be lost; a space for grieving, mourning and ritual. Across 4 main works, including a durational sound work and sculptural installations, R.I.P. Germain honours those he has personally lost, lamenting the various ways in which Black people are denied the right to mourn, even as we are forced to confront death and dying in a world aggressively indifferent to our safety.

With intricate detail, Dead Yard redresses our collective relationship towards death in multiple forms. Audiences are invited to engage with the works, which pay respect to Caribbean mourning rituals: an altar of objects to ponder; perhaps a game of dominos; a library of radical literature from which to learn and question.

Listen to the first part of the soundscape component of Sonny in the link below:

R.I.P. Germain - Sonny (2020) (Vitrine Table Conversation) (Part I)

Listen to the second part of the soundscape component of Sonny in the link below:

R.I.P. Germain - Sonny (2020) (Vitrine Table Conversation) (Part II)

Dead Yard Public Programme (2020 - 2021)

20/11/2020 - 26/02/2021

A series of events and collaborations that accompanied Dead Yard

Abondance Matanda

Freedom Cry Born (2020)

20/11/2020

A poem by Abondance Matanda

As an alternative to in-person public programming, Languid Hands and R.I.P. Germain have invited public artist responses to Dead Yard, to continue engaging with the themes of personal and collective grief, and to ensure that the affective impact of the exhibition can be experienced remotely. Abondance Matanda's poem 'Freedom Cry Born', the first of these commissions, is inspired by, and written in response to the works in R.I.P. Germain's Dead Yard.

FREEDOM CRY BORN

hangin on by a chain

reactin from a place

of suspended pain

prayin and libatin away

dis numbness dats

nicked us in

a noose all now

so da time shud come where

dem gruff hands must can

get da hell out of our here

since dese roots woz always meant to

rise dere way up to

say hello to da heavens

but we been

beat & bun & bruk down n out

beyond wot even

look worthy of anuvva sparkin

yet we stay wayfindin. still

feel a way to grin teef

and sing a sweetest

lullaby for da sake

of our angel pickney

who still pick we to raise dem

day in n day out ah dis realm

cah dey dun kno our darkness

don’t dim dere light in da slightest !

a sunshine did dawn each and

every moment a freedom cry born

Abondance Matanda writes poetry in an authentic colloquial voice, as a commentary on and interrogation of contemporary inner-city life and culture. Her work is inspired by being raised and coming of age in London in the 21st century. She dissects aspects of her identity and lived experience, including girlhood, language and Blackness, from a working class hood perspective.

R.I.P. Germain & Ashley Holmes

Open Deck X Dead Yard (2020)

21/11/2020 & 19/12/2020

A two-part radio show performance in collaboration with Ashley Holmes

This is the second of a series of events and collaborations to accompany Dead Yard, the exhibition by R.I.P. Germain, as part of Languid Hands' No Real Closure curatorial programme at Cubitt Gallery.

Open Deck is an ongoing project and series of gatherings giving space to collectively listen, discuss and explore relationships to music and sound recordings. It has a ‘bring your own’ ethos to encourage an informal space for group listening and conversation. The idea was developed from an interest in the ways memories and stories are carried through global musical practices and a curiosity for what we are able to learn about value systems, histories and cultural traditions through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound recordings.

This iteration of the Open Deck will be happening in response to Dead Yard, the exhibition by R.I.P. Germain at Cubitt Gallery, curated by Languid Hands. With intricate detail, Dead Yard redresses our collective relationship towards death in multiple forms. Works in the exhibition see R.I.P. Germain honouring those he has personally lost, lamenting the various ways in which Black people are denied the right to mourn, even as we are forced to confront death and dying in a world aggressively indifferent to our safety.

Ongoing conversations over recent months have allowed us to think about ways of utilising the Open Deck format to garner a collective space of exchange. We are inviting people to submit music, sound recordings and responses relating to the wider themes in the exhibition revolving around grieving, mourning, lamenting and ritual.

Taking the current Covid-19 guidelines into account, we set up a temporary phone request line for people to make contributions which will be edited and produced into two radio shows broadcasting on Saturday 21st November and Saturday 19th December on the TOUGH MATTER show on NTS Radio.

Radio platforms have been a particularly important and an interesting space during recent months and have revealed an immense potential for listeners to be able to feel a sense of connection, comfort and safety in sharing and exchanging music and conversation whilst in isolation.

Listen to the first Open Deck X Dead Yard Request Line Special show that premiered on the TOUGH MATTER NTS Radio show in the link below:

NTS Radio - TOUGH MATTER - Request Line Special I 21/11/2020

Listen to the first Open Deck X Dead Yard Request Line Special show on Mixcloud in the link below:

NTS Radio - TOUGH MATTER - Request Line Special I 21/11/2020

Listen to the second Open Deck X Dead Yard Request Line Special show that premiered on the TOUGH MATTER NTS Radio show in the link below:

NTS Radio - TOUGH MATTER - Request Line Special II 19/12/2020

Listen to the second Open Deck X Dead Yard Request Line Special show on Mixcloud in the link below:

NTS Radio - TOUGH MATTER - Request Line Special II 19/12/2020

Ashley Holmes is an artist and DJ based in Sheffield working across sound, video, radio broadcasts and performance. He organises Open Deck, a series of gatherings giving space to collectively listen, discuss & document relationships to music & oral histories. He also hosts TOUGH MATTER, a monthly show on NTS Radio. Selected recent exhibitions include: A Free Moment at Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, curated by Christina Gigliotti (2020) away, completely: denigrate, group exhibition at Narrative Projects, London, curated by Languid Hands (2019) Double 6, collaborative performance w R.I.P. Germain at former Court Room of Leeds Town Hall, commissioned by Poor Image Projects (2019) SURVEY I, group exhibition by Jerwood Arts, London (2018/19)

R.I.P. Germain & G

ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT (2021)

26/02/2021

A colouring book made in collaboration with G

ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT is the last in a series of public engagements in relation to Dead Yard, a solo exhibition by R.I.P. Germain.

ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT documents the international correspondence between R.I.P. Germain (UK) and his friend and fellow artist, G (UK/NL). Throughout the duration of Dead Yard, which was open to the public between 3 Sep - 1 Nov 2020, G and R.I.P. Germain sent each other drawings, voicenotes, and other ephemera exploring death, grief, time, boundaries, physicality...those quiet, vulnerable moments…all eventually culminating as ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT.

ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT is a colouring book, but it is also a space and some time, it is play and feeling, generous and malleable, art and artefact...the outlines of an experience that might be called grief.

£2 of cost of this book will be donated to the Josh Carrick Foundation

Notes from the artists...

“The way that grief is always in the back of your mind when you’re in the midst of it, you can't really tuck it away. It’s better to sit with it and hold yourself amongst it and allow others to do the same for you.”

“The colouring books for adults always fascinated me….it makes sense. It’s just kind of sad they have to exist I think.”

“The book is for you from us. You can choose to share or do it alone. It’s up to you always.”

ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT is printed by Calverts and supported by Arts Council England.

Dead Yard is the first exhibition in Languid Hands' No Real Closure curatorial programme at Cubitt Gallery.

Product Details

A3 colouring book

150g Offset paper

20 pages

Fastened by treasury tags

Price £20.00 (including UK P&P, additional £5.75 for overseas delivery)

Click the link below to purchase a copy of ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT.

R.I.P. Germain & G - ONE DAY WE WILL FLOAT (2021)

Click the link below to view the press release for the exhibition.

R.I.P. Germain - Dead Yard Exhibition Handout

R.I.P. Germain is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist, archivist, lecturer and mentor. He focuses on disentangling the inner and outer wars that pertain to the Black male, through essays, interactive audiovisual installations and performances. His first solo exhibition Gidi Up was exhibited at Peak in 2018, and he presented Double 6, a collaborative performance alongside Ashley Holmes, in the former courtroom at Leeds Town Hall, commissioned by Poor Image Projects as part of Index Festival 2019. R.I.P. Germain's current practice lies in meditating on death as a construct, investigating the types of fallout that come with a physical death on individual and communal terms and radically positioning legacy preservation - as a process of activism - within works so as to convince society to reassess how it often chooses to negatively view, record and remember Black men once they have passed away.

Dead Yard is the first exhibition in Languid Hands’ curatorial programme: No Real Closure. In a world of pandemics and insurrections, No Real Closure speaks to the persistent and ever present wounds of anti-blackness that are always already open. There is no closure to our ongoing work of dismantling the violent structures within which we cannot breathe. No closure to our collective resilience, nor to our communal grieving. No Real Closure is both acknowledgement and refusal, at once commitment and surrender.

No Real Closure will see Languid Hands curate five major new commissions from UK-based Black artists of Caribbean descent: R.I.P. Germain, Shenece Oretha, Ajamu X, Camara Taylor and Zinzi Minott.

Supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company and Arts Council England.