Deleuze defined encounters as âan effect, a zigzag, something which passes between two as though under a potential differenceâ. Interaction = alteration; encounter, the apparition of a third term, which isnât the fusion between two poles but an in-between: the AND, fleeting space where things become other. This is how I encountered JosĂšfa Ntjamâs work, struck by a line-up of fluorescent sponges forming an aquatic bush. It made me think of Derrida, who described sponges as ambiguous surfaces, âneither proper or improper, neither simply a thing, nor simply vegetal, nor simply animalâ. A zoophyte, the sponge is a shapeshifter, filling and emptying, simultaneously marking and erasing. I suspected that Ntjamâs work would also escape genealogy, upset identification. The beginning of a confirmation came with the workâs title, âAnd the coral fell from the treeâ, bridging the terrestrial AND the nautical, the natural AND the mythological â a story with ramifying roots and developments.
I emailed her, we talked about Drexciya and Jeff Mills, sea dwellers and space-travellers employing fiction as a tactic of resistance, journeying between disparate realms â abyssal/stellar; historical/mythical â to excavate new futures from forgotten pasts. A similar process seems to animate Ntjamâs work, which uses assemblage (of images, words, stories) to create spaces of encounter between heterogeneous materials and discourses. Within these spaces, sponges become plants, plants become animals, become minerals. Humans ride seashells. Their blood cells are rioting. history loses its capital H as itâs being scrutinised, amended, redrafted. But no relativism here, only intersection, bifurcation, deconstruction. Ntjam approaches things from the middle, where converge the forces of which theyâre composed. No longer treated as discrete entities, beings become modalities: of revolt and emancipation. From what? From assignation, nomination. As she writes âthey, we, you, I, no pronoun can hold us.â
Camille Houzé, 2020
Deleuze a dĂ©fini les rencontres comme « un effet, un zigzag, un Ă©lĂ©ment qui circule entre deux ĂȘtres, comme sous lâinfluence dâune diffĂ©rence potentielle ». De lâinteraction naĂźt lâaltĂ©ration, la rencontre, lâapparition dâun troisiĂšme terme, qui ne correspond pas Ă la fusion entre deux pĂŽles, mais Ă un entre-deux : le ET, cet espace Ă©phĂ©mĂšre oĂč les choses deviennent autres.
Voici comment jâai rencontrĂ© lâĆuvre de JosĂšfa Ntjam. Je fus impressionnĂ© par une rangĂ©e dâĂ©ponges fluorescentes qui formaient un buisson aquatique. Elles mâĂ©voquaient Derrida, qui les avait qualifiĂ©es de surfaces ambiguĂ«s, « ni propres ni sales, ni simples objets ni simples vĂ©gĂ©taux ni simples animaux ». LâĂ©ponge est zoophyte, une crĂ©ature transformiste qui se remplit et se vide, qui marque et efface en mĂȘme temps. Je pressentais que lâĆuvre de cette artiste Ă©chapperait Ă©galement Ă la gĂ©nĂ©alogie et chamboulerait ainsi les codes de lâidentification. Jâen ai eu un dĂ©but de confirmation avec son titre : Et le corail tomba de lâarbre. Une passerelle entre le monde terrestre ET lâunivers marin, le naturel ET la mythologie. Une histoire aux racines et aux branches ramifiĂ©es.
Jâai communiquĂ© avec elle par e-mail. Nous avons discutĂ© de Drexciya et de Jeff Mills, des hommes de mer doublĂ©s de voyageurs de lâespace qui se servent de la fiction comme dâune tactique de rĂ©sistance. Ils traversent des royaumes variĂ©s (abyssaux/stellaires, historiques/mythiques) pour creuser de nouveaux futurs dans les passĂ©s oubliĂ©s. Un procĂ©dĂ© similaire semble animer lâĆuvre de JosĂšfa Ntjam, laquelle exploite la technique de lâassemblage (dâimages, de mots et dâhistoires) pour crĂ©er des espaces de rencontre entre matĂ©riaux et discours hĂ©tĂ©rogĂšnes. Ă lâintĂ©rieur de ces lieux, les Ă©ponges se muent en plantes, qui se transforment en animaux, lesquels deviennent Ă leur tour des minĂ©raux. Les ĂȘtres humains conduisent des coquillages. Leurs cellules sanguines sâagitent violemment. Lâhistoire perd son H majuscule, tandis quâon lâexamine sous toutes les coutures, quâon la corrige, quâon la rĂ©Ă©crit. Point de relativisme ici. Juste une question dâintersection, de bifurcation et de dĂ©construction. JosĂšfa Ntjam aborde les choses en partant de leur centre, oĂč convergent les forces qui les composent. Les crĂ©atures vivantes ne sont plus considĂ©rĂ©es comme des entitĂ©s discrĂštes, elles deviennent des modalitĂ©s dâexpression de rĂ©volte et dâĂ©mancipation. De quoi veulent-elles sâaffranchir ? De lâattribution et de la dĂ©signation. Comme lâartiste lâĂ©crit si bien : « ils, elles, nous, on, vous, tu, je, aucun pronom ne peut nous contenir. »
Camille Houzé, 2020
Traduit de l’anglais par ADT International
JosĂšfa Ntjam is an artist, performer and writer whose practice combines sculpture, photomontage, film and sound. Gleaning the raw material of her work from the internet, books on natural sciences and photographic archives, Ntjam uses assemblage â of images, words, sounds, and stories â as a method to deconstruct hegemonic discourses on origin, identity and race. Her work weaves multiple narratives drawn from investigations into historical events, scientific functions and philosophical concepts, to which she confronts references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism and science-fiction. These apparently heterogeneous discourses and iconographies are marshalled together in an effort to re-appropriate History while speculating on not-yet-determined space-times â interstitial worlds where systems of perception and naming of fixed (id)entities no longer operate. From there, Ntjam composes utopian cartographies and ontological fictions in which technological fantasy, intergalactic voyages and hypothetical underwater civilizations become the matrix for a practice of emancipation that promotes the emergence of inclusive, processual and resilient communities.
JoseÌfa Ntjam est une artiste pluridisciplinaire dont la pratique associe sculpture, photomontage, performance, film et eÌcriture. Glanant la matieÌre premieÌre de ses Ćuvres sur internet, dans des livres de sciences naturelles ou dans des archives photograhiques, JosĂšfa Ntjam utilise l’assemblage â dâimages, de mots, de sons et dâhistoire(s) â comme mode opeÌratoire dâune pratique visant aÌ deÌconstruire les grands reÌcits aÌ lâorigine de discours heÌgeÌmoniques sur les notions dâorigine, dâidentiteÌ et de race. Son travail prend souvent forme aÌ partir dâenqueÌtes scrupuleuses sur des eÌveÌnements historiques, des fonctions scientifiques ou des concepts philosophiques, auxquels sont meÌleÌes des reÌfeÌrences aÌ la mythologie africaine, aux rituels ancestraux, aux symboles religieux ou aÌ des reÌcits de science-fiction. InspireÌ par la meÌthodologie speÌculative de lâAfrofurisme, lâentrecroisement de notions a priori heÌteÌrogeÌnes se fait dans une logique de reÌappropriation de lâHistoire, aÌ laquelle Ntjam confronte des constructions narratives explorant des espaces-temps aÌ venir, des « entres-deux mondes » ouÌ les systeÌmes de perceptions et de nominations dâentiteÌs fixes ne sont plus capables dâopeÌrer. Ainsi naiÌt la poiÌetique de JosĂšfa Ntjam, un processus par lequel le politique et le poeÌtique sâentremeÌlent au sein de cartographies utopiques et de fictions ontologiques, quâelle utilise comme outils pour une pratique de lâeÌmancipation appelant aÌ lâeÌmergence de communauteÌs multiples, processuelles et reÌsilientes.
Camille HouzĂ© is a curator and art historian based in London, where he is currently the director of NıCOLETTı gallery. He was previously Associate Curator at Kunstraum, London, and has been leading the research for a retrospective on Jean Dubuffet at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, from 2018 to 2021. He is the author of âThe Swallow and the Daggerâ, published in the exhibition catalogue Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty (Prestel, 2021). He also wrote âa digression on ghostly bees and luxury insectsâ, published by Kunstraum in the exhibition catalogue Anna HulaÄovĂĄ: Graceful Ride (2018). HouzĂ© has an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, completed under the supervision of Professor Sarah Wilson.
Camille HouzĂ© est un commissaire d’exposition et historien de l’art basĂ© Ă Londres, oĂč il est actuellement le directeur de la galerie NıCOLETTı. Il Ă©tait auparavant conservateur associĂ© au Kunstraum, Ă Londres, et a dirigĂ© les recherches pour une rĂ©trospective sur Jean Dubuffet Ă la Barbican Art Gallery, Ă Londres, de 2018 Ă 2021. Il est l’auteur de “The Swallow and the Dagger”, publiĂ© dans le catalogue de l’exposition Jean Dubuffet : Brutal Beauty (Prestel, 2021). Il a Ă©galement Ă©crit ‘Une digression sur les abeilles fantĂŽmes et les insectes de luxe’, publiĂ©e par Kunstraum dans le catalogue d’exposition Anna HulaÄovĂĄ : Graceful Ride(2018). HouzĂ© est titulaire d’un MA en histoire de l’art du Courtauld Institute of Art de Londres, rĂ©alisĂ© sous la supervision du professeur Sarah Wilson.
For almost 20 years, I have developed a practice of painting that has gradually opened up to very diverse fields, from performance to monumental sculpture, from painting on silk to installation. Using various bases and developing reuse, assemblages and formal confrontations, I wish to show how the modern project resists in the body and materiality of its own representations. As the result of an intense activity as an iconographer, my work is based on an open practice of the form, quite the opposite of a nostalgic or referential re-reading, enabling the free exercise of the most unexpected visual combinations. The idea is for me to materialise images, literally making them concrete. Started in 1998, mainly through the practice of painting, my work gradually has become more characteristic, more specifically in recent years, with a large variety of means in play.