EXHIBITION
AMBER ABLETT

Opening: Friday 12 February, 2-5 pm
Exhibition: 12 February – 28 March

UKS is happy to present Amber Ablett’s solo exhibition Rehearsal For A Change Gonna Come..

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How should a bi-racial person with light skin express themselves about racial oppression – a struggle that doesn’t have their face on it? Is there a right and wrong way to be Black, and where do you position yourself when polarization is expected and even encouraged? British-born artist Amber Ablett’s work deals with the conflicting identities within a person of mixed racial heritage. Specially conceived for the three main spaces at UKS, Ablett (b. 1986, UK) presents Rehearsal for A Change Gonna Come, a three-channel video installation with sound, combined with a series of workshops that will take place during the exhibition period. In both works, Ablett addresses the complexities of living with an intersecting identity in a racialized society.

For the private workshops taking place in the third exhibition space at UKS, Ablett has invited Oslo-based Gestalt therapist Vikram Kollmannskog to facilitate them. Ablett and Kollmannskog invite Black, indigenous, and people of colour, to discuss and explore the state of in-between, an idea described in academic theories such as Triple Consciousness: to be in-between two cultures, races, or identities.

If you would like to take part in one of these private workshops, please send us an email to workshop@uks.no. The first workshop will take place Friday 12 March between 11:30 am and 2 pm. Please note that, due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, these workshops are limited to five participants.

Rehearsal for A Change Gonna Come, 2021
HD video installation, 25 mins

With thanks to:
Destiney Brooks, Xavian D. Lewis and Dwayne Cooke.

BIOGRAPHY:

Amber Ablett (b. 1986, UK) holds an MFA from Bergen Academy of Art and Design and an MA from Camberwell College of Art. Recent exhibitions include the solo show Anthems at Lydgalleriet, Bergen (2019); Høstutstillingen at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2019); and Archipelago at Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen (2019). Ablett lives and works in Bergen.

PRESS:

— Review in Kunstkritikk (online journal)
Å se i mørket, Kunstkritikk, 08.03.21

— Review in Arforum
Amber Ablett,Artforum, May 2021