© Arpita Shah, Soil Sistar holding Callaloo, Falcon Fields, 2023

Sankofa
by Arpita Shah

ONCA
14 St George’s Place
Brighton
BN1 4GB

25 Sept - 6 Oct

Opening hours:
Wed 25 - Sat 28 September: 1.30-5.30pm
Wed 2 - Sun 6 October: 1.30-5.30pm
(Closed Sun 29 September - Tues 1 October)

The first exhibition to open as part of Photo Fringe 2024 will be of new work by Arpita Shah co-commisioned by Photo Fringe as the South East Art Partner of We Feed The UK, a nationwide storytelling campaign grown by The Gaia Foundation.

Across a country that is 71% farmland, where less than half our biodiversity remains, restorative practices are the root to future resilience. The time is ripe to celebrate these efforts, in support of the regenerative agriculture transition.

Arpita Shah was commissioned to make work with the inspiring women and communities at Go Grow With Love and Black Rootz. These two London growing projects are addressing injustices in the food system, recognising that genuine sustainability is rooted in equality.

© Arpita Shah, Evelyn with wild berries Falcon Fields

The exhibition's title comes from the Twi term ‘Sankofa’ from the Akan tribe of Ghana. Its translation comes from an Akan proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenkyiri,” meaning, “It is not taboo to go back for what you forgot (or left behind).” Arpita Shah spent time observing the acts of reciprocity between generations of women growing together in London, honouring the work of their ancestors to plant the seeds of knowledge for future farmers.

© Arpita Shah, Sandra, Paulette and Pam, Wolves Lane, 2023

In Haringey, Paulette Henry and Pamela Shor run Black Rootz. The UK’s first Black-led food growing enterprise to use an indigenous intergenerational approach, they reconnect Londoners with ancestral knowledge systems, provide access to green space for marginalised communities, and achieve food sovereignty through glasshouse-grown crops such as sweet potato, squash and tomatillo.

In Tottenham and Enfield, Sandra Salazar D’eca runs Go Grow With Love to support women of African and Caribbean heritage in nurturing a symbiotic relationship with local land.

This holistic approach cultivates more than crops; by rooting Black People and People of Colour to their place in the UK, Sandra, Paulette and Pamela are growing grassroots solutions for racial equality, land reparations and food justice.

Find out more about the project by following this link to the We Feed The UK website

We Feed The UK pairs award-winning photographers and poets with the UK’s most inspiring food producers. Weaving together more than 40 Arts and Environment Partners, these radical collaborations are opening eyes and ears to the food system’s potential to positively impact our climate, wildlife, communities and earth connection. This story – one of ten exhibited across the UK between now and spring 2025 – centres diverse voices in the movement for a UK-wide transition to agroecological farming and fishing.

The campaign has been grown by The Gaia Foundation: a charity with four decades of experience accompanying earth’s best custodians to revive biocultural diversity.

Arpita Shahis a photographic artist based in Eastbourne, UK. She works between photography and film, exploring the fields where culture and identity meet. Shah spent her early years living between her birth-country of India, Ireland and the Middle East, before settling in the UK. This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities.

Performance poet Zena Edwards was commissioned in collaboration with the Hot Poets; an organisation communicating climate change science through spoken word poetry.

Click the image above to watch Zena's performance on YouTube.

The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers. As Environment Partner for this story, they can provide positive pathways for anyone interested in contributing to an agroecological system that furthers food justice.

Eco-exhibition production - This exhibition has been sponsored by Hahnemühle; all prints are on their Natural Line paper: Bamboo - 90% of this unique, environmentally friendly FineArt inkjet paper is made from bamboo fibres.

Extended exhibition in London

30 September – 13 October 2024
Creative advertising specialists BUILD HOLLYWOOD are supporting the project with a street art campaign of poster sites in Haringey, encouraging locals to connect with their growing communities.

Events
- Saturday 5 October (6-8pm), Celebration event, ONCA Gallery, 14 St George's Pl, Brighton BN1 4GB

- Wednesday 9 October (9am-4pm), Seed swap beneath the poster sites at Pocket Park, 24 West Green Road, London N15 5NP. Drop by!