Zina Saro-Wiwa, a British-Nigerian artist, is bringing a new approach to alcohol consumption through her work with distillation, food, sound, photography, and film. Saro-Wiwa’s Illicit Gin Institute Assembly provides an opportunity to celebrate the flora and examine the history of distilled spirits. The Assembly is a living, evolving performance piece created in collaboration with local audience-participants to share and express her findings on African sociality, botanicals, spirituality, and science. Her approach to alcohol consumption is ritualistic and mindful, examining the history of distilled spirits as an alchemical process. The Assemblies provide an opportunity to create a space for people to come together, explore their spirituality, and engage in a social and communal activity that is also seen as medicine.
Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University is hosting a residency for Zina Saro-Wiwa, a world-renowned artist. The residency will culminate in a unique event called the Illicit Gin Institute Assembly on March 31, 7-10pm on Wolfe Island. The presentation will be the first major showing of Saro-Wiwa’s work in Canada. In addition to the Illicit Gin Institute Assembly, there will be a screening of Saro-Wiwa’s 2020 film, “Worrying the Mask: The Politics of Authenticity and Contemporaneity in the Worlds of African Art” at The Isabel Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as an episode or two of her podcast series, “Spirit Led.”
Saro-Wiwa is excited to be in Canada and has been meeting with First Nation elders and fire keepers to learn about indigenous botanicals, researching black moonshiners of the region, and the history of black entrepreneurship. She is preparing for the Illicit Gin Institute Assembly, which is described as a social sculpture and a secular ritual that brings people together and fosters a sense of fellowship and solidarity. The Assembly is a living, evolving performance piece created in collaboration with local audience-participants to share and express her findings on African sociality, botanicals, spirituality, and science. The goal of the Assembly is to make space for new stories to emerge and connect people, places, and histories.
The Illicit Gin Institute: Assembly #6 is curated by Emelie Chhangur, Qanita Lilla, and Sebastian De Line, and commissioned and presented by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The event will take place at Hotel Wolfe Island, 1237 County Rd 96, Wolfe Island, Ontario. To learn more about the event and Saro-Wiwa’s residency, visit the Agnes Etherington Art Centre website, where you can also find the center’s contact information and social media links.
Zina Saro-Wiwa, a British-Nigerian artist, is introducing a new West African cultural approach to alcohol consumption through her work with distillation, food, sound, photography, and film. Assemblies, which are part of her Illicit Gin Institute project, offer a unique opportunity to explore the very idea of ‘spirit’ and provide a space for new stories to emerge and connect people, places, and histories. Saro-Wiwa’s assemblies are an opportunity to celebrate the flora and examine the history of distilled spirits, which she views as occupying a powerful nexus where spirituality and science meet.
Biography
Zina Saro-Wiwa was born in the Niger Delta region in 1976 to a family with roots in Ogoniland. After working as a BBC producer, presenter, and reporter for over twelve years, she began to focus on her artistic practice, which includes photography, film, sound, food, and distillation. She is one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers of 2016 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Art in 2017. Saro-Wiwa has exhibited her work at biennales, museums, and art fairs around the world, including the Tate Modern, Frieze and Basel Art Fairs, and major public sites like Times Square in Manhattan. Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, among others.
Saro-Wiwa recently gave the keynote lecture for Yale’s Black Environmentalism’s conference (2022) and is currently exhibiting in the fifth Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kerala, India. A major solo exhibition of her work at the Pitt River Museum, Oxford opened in February 2023.
The Illicit Gin Institute Assembly, the film screening, and the podcast series are part of Saro-Wiwa’s residency at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University. The events are funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario/Agence federale de developpement economique pour le Sud de l’Ontario and the Chancellor Dunning Trust Visitorship, Queen’s University, with partners Hotel Wolfe Island and Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.
The Illicit Gin Institute Assembly is a living, evolving performance piece created in collaboration with local audience-participants to share and express her findings on African sociality, botanicals, spirituality, and science. The Assembly culminates in a special event at the Hotel Wolfe Island, which will be the first major presentation of Saro-Wiwa’s work in Canada.
Saro-Wiwa’s work celebrates the flora, examining its potential to provide medicinal benefits through mindful and moderate consumption. Her approach to alcohol consumption is ritualistic, examining the history of distilled spirits as an alchemical process. The Assemblies provide an opportunity to create a space for people to come together, explore their spirituality, and engage in a social and communal activity that is also seen as medicine.
Saro-Wiwa’s residency has allowed her to meet with First Nation elders and firekeepers, learning about indigenous botanicals, researching black moonshiners of the region, and the history of black entrepreneurship. These experiences have informed her work and added depth to her exploration of the relationship between the flora, distillation, and spirituality.
Saro-Wiwa’s work with the Illicit Gin Institute demonstrates her ability to connect people and ideas through art, creating an opportunity for new stories to emerge and for people to come together in a meaningful way.
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