Shiraz Bayjoo - Ficus Indica
£350
Limited edition ceramic by Shiraz Bayjoo, exclusive to the International Curators Forum, to support the production of a new film.
All profits from this edition go towards the production of Shiraz's new film titled Seeds of Empire. All collectors of the edition will receive an invitation to a private screening of the film with the artist prior to it being exhibited publicly and a private collectors tour with the artist when the film is first exhibited.
Edition run - 20
Dimensions - 8 x 12cm
Year - 2023
Materials - Decal and glaze and Vulcan Black Stoneware
Authentication - Edition certificate numbered and signed by the artist
About the Edition, Ficus Indica
The image in the frame references an illustration of an early European plantation in South Africa, most likely the prickly pear, which was transported from Mexico as a cheap food commodity and building material. It has serious contemporary environmental effects. The black Vulcan clay references the volcanic stone of islands such as Mauritius, as a metaphor for the violence the land has witnessed through the plantation system. Presented in a baroque frame, an opulent style which developed in Europe in part through the enormous wealth created by the plantation system. There is a hook on the back of the edition for hanging.
About the Film, Seeds of Empire
Seeds of Empire is new single-channel film, which has developed from Shiraz Bayjoo’s Collecting As Practice fellowship with Delfina Foundation and Kew Gardens, and the new performance work he developed for ICF's Diaspora Pavilion 2: Venice (May 2022). This moving image work will unfold as a series of performative abstract movements or dances between performers, and different specimens from Kew’s historical seed library, archives and live collections in the Palm and Temperate glass houses. In contemplating the importance and magnitude of such a collection, the work will explore the emotional resonance and symbolism of the institution, and its contemporary significance as a silo, preserving what is no longer possible to exist in its natural environment.
Shiraz Bayjoo is a contemporary multi-disciplinary artist who works with film, painting, photography, performance, and installation. His research-based practice focuses on personal and public archives addressing cultural memory and postcolonial nationhood in a manner that challenges dominant cultural narratives. Bayjoo has exhibited with the Gropius Bau, Berlin; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Institute of International Visual Arts, London; New Art Exchange, Nottingham; 5th Edition Dhaka Art Summit; 14th Biennale of Sharjah; 13th Biennale of Dakar; and 21st Biennale of Sydney. Bayjoo is a recipient of the Gasworks Fellowship and the Arts Council of England, and was commissioned for Art Night, London 2019. He was an artist in residence at the Delfina Foundation in 2021, and has recently been awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. In 2022 Bayjoo presented a solo exhibition at the Diaspora Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennial, and recently presented at the 15th edition of Sharjah Biennial.