Our Canvas Grows From The Soil

curated by Dr. Kara Blackmore

Linking practices between Uganda and Ghana, the special project is comprised of artworks are all made from the medium of barkcloth (lubugo, kyenkyen), a UNESCO listed Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

In the display filled exclusively  with barkcloth artworks, Ugandan’s Gloria Kiconco and Piloya Irene will present sculptural zines and textiles that come from forest-embedded installations. Othello De’Souza-Hartley shares his series that uses barkcloth as a canvas for photographic printing and textured painting, marking a diasporic site of connection across place and identity. 

These artists work against conventional painting methods and instead use barkcloth as a point of communion between contemporary social practice and ancestral material practices. The project draws on the ancient practice of harvesting bark from living trees and processing it into textile sheets while the forest remains alive. As a booth filled with these works it shows how artists’ work opens renewable artistic possibilities  while also addressing love, trade, environmental harm and material liberation beyond borders.

*Image; WITHIN 5, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, 2026, Photographic print on barkcloth paper with black cotton threads, 75 x7 5cm (variable)