Amrita Hepi, The Blue Tax (the blew tacks), 2023, Inkjet print on Ilford Pearl 310gsm, 82 x 125.5 cm, Courtesy the artist.
Straight Torque, twin series
Amrita Hepi
1 July – September 15
Gallery 4
Artist and choreographer Amrita Hepi acknowledges the black and brown female body as an intricate vessel for, and of, historical knowledge. Hepi’s work coalesces fact and fiction, memoir and ethnography, the local and the singular.
In Straight torque, twin series Hepi uses linguistic mechanisms, specifically homophones, as a framing device. Homophones (morning/mourning, blew/blue, I’ll/aisle/isle) are defined as words sharing identical pronunciation but possessing distinct meanings. By pointedly using the paradoxical nature of the English language to develop a visual dialect, Hepi’s work elicits a spectrum of effects, ranging from frustration and failure, to delight and the absurdity of our collective reality.