Grace Ndiritu
Grace Ndiritu is a British-Kenyan artist whose artworks are concerned with the transformation of our contemporary world. Her archive of over forty 'hand-crafted' videos; textiles, photography, performances, paintings and architectural spaces have been widely exhibited, most recently, in her mid-career survey entitled Healing The Museum at SMAK, Ghent in 2023. Her work has been featured in Artforum, Art Review, The Guardian, TIME Magazine, The Financial Times, Elephant, BOMB, Mousse, Art Monthly, Metropolis M, Phaidon: The 21st Century Art Book, Apollo Magazine 40 under 40 list, and BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour.
Her publications include:
Dissent Without Modification: The 1990s (2020)
Being Together: A Manual For Living (2021)
Healing The Museum (2023)
www.gracendiritu.com
Her publications include:
Dissent Without Modification: The 1990s (2020)
Being Together: A Manual For Living (2021)
Healing The Museum (2023)
www.gracendiritu.com
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Drafts by Grace Ndiritu
https://gracendiritu.com/Writings/ESSAY-FROM-TRUMP-TO-FRIEZE-HAS-NEOLIBERALISM-FINALLY-TURNED-BLACK-2024
The immense solar flares of early October 2024, might have had something to do with the crazy nonsense that was triggered that week, when I discovered I was being trolled online, by a white, middle-aged, female journalist, who works for a national newspaper in Belgium. She was online late at night, defending a young male colleague, stating that I had ruined his career because I mentioned him in an essay, where I examined how conservative forces were taking over Left wing journalism in the art world.
You can read it here
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/103038748/SHODDY_JOURNALISM_AND_THE_RISE_OF_CONSERVATIVE_POLITICS_IN_THE_ART_WORLD_2023_" target="_blank">https://www.academia.edu/103038748/SHODDY_JOURNALISM_AND_THE_RISE_OF_CONSERVATIVE_POLITICS_IN_THE_ART_WORLD_2023_</a>
Thus, this new essay is about the right of artists to write about the state of the world, the rise of the Far Right and Trump and his far reaching, damaging effects on Black men.
https://www.gracendiritu.com/Writings/ESSAY-SHODDY-JOURNALISM-AND-THE-RISE-OF-CONSERVATIVE-POLITICS-IN-THE
Just as the world of music is having to contend with AI generated songs that threaten the livelihood of musicians, in the visual arts we are having to contend with a new wave of shoddy journalism that hinders the progress being made to structurally change Museum culture for the better, in general but especially around the complicated area of restitution.
You could see this essay as a companion piece to my essay Notes To a White Left World: Activism in this Current Political Crisis (2017) which examined the hypocrisy of the White Left during the first part of Trump’s Presidency. Now however, although I have received lots of wonderful support for my art practice from peers and colleagues and there are lots of examples of good journalism some of whom I will return to in the Conclusion of this essay; a new cynical low in journalism has hit the mainstream, one that I feel is important to examine.
http://gracendiritu.com/Writings/INSTITUTIONAL-CRITIQUE-RACISM-SPIRITUAL-PRACTICE-IN-THE-ART-WORLD-2019
Today I met with three sweet, young RCA student curators to discuss my practice. We sat in Eurostar terminal as I waited for a train back to Paris already feeling the pressure of Brexit beginning. As we chatted about relational aesthetics, performance, and post-internet art, what moved me most was there real concern for the artworld. As young curators, they wanted to know as an experienced artist, how best to negate the difficulties of making shows in today's political Neo-liberal climate. In the deafness of the white cube space, how could make they the museum alive again?
http://gracendiritu.com/Writings/LOVE-IN-THE-TIME-OF-TRUMP-THE-PROBLEMATICS-OF-KANYE-WEST-2018
This essay is the third in a series, that has been specifically focused on Trump and the White Left’s relationship to him. When Trump was first elected in 2016, it was obvious within the first few hours that his relationship to the world was to be one of being an abuser; who through fake news and Twitter terror, would intentionally let the world experience Gaslighting on a daily basis. In other words, he would manipulate by varying psychological means the rest of us, into doubting our own sanity. This new essay now focuses on the far-reaching effect on politics and activism, of having such a President be the leader of the free world and its Neo-liberal consequences in the art world.
As more and more people take a stand against Trump, I thought it would be good to write an addendum to my previous text A Call To White America which was published directly after Trump's election in November 2016. That earlier text focused on the White Left and its power to change the world and while this new text is addressed to the White Left again because I have assumed the White Right isn't really interested in changing the world for the good of all people; this new piece is ultimately about checking White privilege.
http://www.gracendiritu.com/Writings/A-CALL-TO-WHITE-AMERICA
Abstract
This is a Call to White America to put down your American Apparel tote bag, your vintage copy of VICE, your American Spirit rollie and your new lite taste microbrew beer. It's time to take action.
Light a candle, sit down and get ready for some hard news.
If you think of yourself as a White person who has some integrity, it's time to prove it. If you think of Black people as being your equal and you enjoy and regularly consume their culture, then now is the time to show some love.
https://gracendiritu.com/Writings/ESSAY-FROM-TRUMP-TO-FRIEZE-HAS-NEOLIBERALISM-FINALLY-TURNED-BLACK-2024
The immense solar flares of early October 2024, might have had something to do with the crazy nonsense that was triggered that week, when I discovered I was being trolled online, by a white, middle-aged, female journalist, who works for a national newspaper in Belgium. She was online late at night, defending a young male colleague, stating that I had ruined his career because I mentioned him in an essay, where I examined how conservative forces were taking over Left wing journalism in the art world.
You can read it here
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/103038748/SHODDY_JOURNALISM_AND_THE_RISE_OF_CONSERVATIVE_POLITICS_IN_THE_ART_WORLD_2023_" target="_blank">https://www.academia.edu/103038748/SHODDY_JOURNALISM_AND_THE_RISE_OF_CONSERVATIVE_POLITICS_IN_THE_ART_WORLD_2023_</a>
Thus, this new essay is about the right of artists to write about the state of the world, the rise of the Far Right and Trump and his far reaching, damaging effects on Black men.
https://www.gracendiritu.com/Writings/ESSAY-SHODDY-JOURNALISM-AND-THE-RISE-OF-CONSERVATIVE-POLITICS-IN-THE
Just as the world of music is having to contend with AI generated songs that threaten the livelihood of musicians, in the visual arts we are having to contend with a new wave of shoddy journalism that hinders the progress being made to structurally change Museum culture for the better, in general but especially around the complicated area of restitution.
You could see this essay as a companion piece to my essay Notes To a White Left World: Activism in this Current Political Crisis (2017) which examined the hypocrisy of the White Left during the first part of Trump’s Presidency. Now however, although I have received lots of wonderful support for my art practice from peers and colleagues and there are lots of examples of good journalism some of whom I will return to in the Conclusion of this essay; a new cynical low in journalism has hit the mainstream, one that I feel is important to examine.
http://gracendiritu.com/Writings/INSTITUTIONAL-CRITIQUE-RACISM-SPIRITUAL-PRACTICE-IN-THE-ART-WORLD-2019
Today I met with three sweet, young RCA student curators to discuss my practice. We sat in Eurostar terminal as I waited for a train back to Paris already feeling the pressure of Brexit beginning. As we chatted about relational aesthetics, performance, and post-internet art, what moved me most was there real concern for the artworld. As young curators, they wanted to know as an experienced artist, how best to negate the difficulties of making shows in today's political Neo-liberal climate. In the deafness of the white cube space, how could make they the museum alive again?
http://gracendiritu.com/Writings/LOVE-IN-THE-TIME-OF-TRUMP-THE-PROBLEMATICS-OF-KANYE-WEST-2018
This essay is the third in a series, that has been specifically focused on Trump and the White Left’s relationship to him. When Trump was first elected in 2016, it was obvious within the first few hours that his relationship to the world was to be one of being an abuser; who through fake news and Twitter terror, would intentionally let the world experience Gaslighting on a daily basis. In other words, he would manipulate by varying psychological means the rest of us, into doubting our own sanity. This new essay now focuses on the far-reaching effect on politics and activism, of having such a President be the leader of the free world and its Neo-liberal consequences in the art world.
As more and more people take a stand against Trump, I thought it would be good to write an addendum to my previous text A Call To White America which was published directly after Trump's election in November 2016. That earlier text focused on the White Left and its power to change the world and while this new text is addressed to the White Left again because I have assumed the White Right isn't really interested in changing the world for the good of all people; this new piece is ultimately about checking White privilege.
http://www.gracendiritu.com/Writings/A-CALL-TO-WHITE-AMERICA
Abstract
This is a Call to White America to put down your American Apparel tote bag, your vintage copy of VICE, your American Spirit rollie and your new lite taste microbrew beer. It's time to take action.
Light a candle, sit down and get ready for some hard news.
If you think of yourself as a White person who has some integrity, it's time to prove it. If you think of Black people as being your equal and you enjoy and regularly consume their culture, then now is the time to show some love.