Osman Yousefzada – When will we be good enough?
02 Nov 2024 - 09 Mar 2025
10am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday and selected bank holidays
Osman Yousefzada is an internationally significant artist who is changing the way we think about our shared histories with this new thought-provoking and breath-taking sculptural installation.
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The exhibition asks when will we ever be good enough to move forward from a centuries-old reality where power and control are in the hands of the few? He suggests that power doesn’t ever die but reinvents itself. How much power do we ever really hold and how much has really changed?
This captivating installation will include a range of media including scuplture and textiles that tell stories of global power that are just as relevant to people across the world today as they have been for centuries. It will highlight issues of injustice and patriarchy that impact disproportionately according to status and race.
Inspiration for this new iteration of Yousefzada’s practice comes from the links between colonial histories and today’s information age. The underwater cables that transmit digital information are laid along the same colonial seafaring routes once taken by British ships; both of which are viaducts of power.
Power doesn’t die, it reinvents itself.
Osman Yousefzada
When will we be good enough? follows Yousefzada's recent major solo presentations:
Welcome! A Palazzo for Immigrants at the 60th Venice Biennale (Palazzo Franchetti, 17 April-7 October 2024)
Where It Began at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford (3 May-13 October 2024), part of the countdown to Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture
This is a compelling exploration of historical and contemporary power dynamics seen through the lens of Yousefzada's unique artistic vision.
About the artist
Osman Yousefzada is a British born, internationally recognised interdisciplinary artist and writer who describes his practice as auto ethnographic, where personal stories become political. His South Asian heritage is a strong influence in his craft-inspired, sculptural practice. Born in Birmingham, he creates work that reflects and questions the injustices he saw first-hand during his childhood and which still exist today. South Asian influences are what many might first see when they encounter his work but it is far broader and unravels pressing issues of our time including global histories, issues of power, colonialities, class and race.
Image credit
Image by Steve Russell Studios LTD. Courtesy of Osman Yousefzada.