Last Chance to See: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s Learning Curves at the Barbican
A fairytale blend of noir, theatre and colonialism, make sure to visit Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum's It Will End In Tears before it closes in January...
December 12, 2024
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice spans landscapes and media, encompassing painting, installation, and animation. Their drawings take the form of narrative landscapes, that seem simultaneously futuristic and ancient, playing with conventions of linear time. Pamela often draws from literature, theatre, and science fiction - with references from Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) to Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - particularly in their slippery representations of people and places.
Born in Botswana, and practising in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the Netherlands, the artist’s practice has been shaped by these different contexts. In a recent episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast, Phatsimo Sunstrum details a transformative residency with Arturo Lindsay in the rainforest in Panama, a coastal Central American and Caribbean country, which continues to inform their representations of volcanic, subterranean, and cosmological environments. Seeing the landscape as ‘another character’ in their works, Phatsimo Sunstrum challenges the binary of landscape and figurative painting, and Western/European art historical conventions.
Though It Will End in Tears (2024) is the artist’s first major UK solo exhibition, it is not their first in the city of London. In 2023, The Pavilion at London Mithraem Bloomberg SPACE hinted at Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in Édouard Glissant’s ideas of ‘trembling’; a theme delved deeper into at the venue earlier this year by artist Leo Robinson. Their place-based practice and installations permit their practice to travel to different spaces across the capital, and to engage with its colonial histories.
At the Barbican, Phatsimo Sunstrum’s interest in performance and artifice takes centre stage, with works inspired by film noir propped up around wooden theatre sets - a nod to the work of Carrie Mae Weems, recently presented in the main gallery space. Drawing on The Curve’s design as a sound buffer, It Will End in Tears is most strongly felt in its eerie silence; a total transformation from last year’s exhibition by Julianknxx, which saturated the space with light and sound.
Crossing the boundaries between poetry and music, audio and visual art, Julianknxx’s multichannel installation at the Barbican was born out of a year of travelling over four thousand kilometres across Europe, from Berlin to Barcelona, in a process of collaboration and ‘active listening’ with Black choirs and collectives. The resulting Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) challenged stereotypes of African art, history, and culture - and their interdisciplinary practice, the notion of a singular ‘Black experience’ - as Phatsimo Sunstrum’s exhibition does too.
Elsewhere, their academic, ‘research’ approach to art, has also inspired interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of science, with theoretical physicist Dr. James Sylvester Gates. Ancient Adinkra symbology and geometric structures often emerge from their depictions of natural landscapes and, in this body of work, the figure of the femme fatale is central. Personally, the artist has both challenged and embraced conventions of Western/European art history; by constructing their own alter ego, Asme, Phatsimo Sunstrum has also created their own space for free creative expression, and an ability to resist categorisation by identity, biography, or subjectivity. Their expanded cast of characters at the Barbican presents an intriguing story - but it is what they keep to themselves that is of the greatest interest.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears is showing at the Barbican in London until 5 January 2025.
For more, listen to the artist and curator Diego Chocano in this episode of the EMPIRE LINES podcast.
