Skip to main content
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.

Alberta Whittle

How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth

14 September - 24 November 2019

This exhibition marked Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle’s first major solo exhibition in a UK institution, drawing together new and recent artworks in film, sculpture, print, installation and performance to reflect on memory, trauma, weather and tensions between the land and sea.

Two sculptural objects akin to masks or costume articles are displayed against a vibrant blue wall. To the left, a beige object has holes cut into it like eyes, it is directly mounted on the wall. To the right, a blue hood lays on a shelf protruding from the wall.

Whittle’s interdisciplinary practice aims to develop a visual, oral and textual language that questions accepted Western constructs of history and society. This work is undertaken with an acute understanding of how formal historical records produced by privileged white men have always sought to replace more ancient and informal ways of comprehending the past. The artist’s wider research questions the authority of postcolonial power, its implications and its legacy.

Whittle’s work often considers conditions in the afterlife of slavery where the racialised black body can become suspended in a state of stress that directly impacts upon physical, mental and emotional health. Within her work, the artist connects these ideas of black oppression with meditations on survival; championing the idea of healing as self-liberation.

How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth refers to Whittle’s current preoccupation with healing, writing, breath and orality. Writing has always been an integral part of her practice and the texts she produces are meant to be read aloud, to be heard as well as seen. She also works rhythmically in relation to writing and reading, particularly looking at punctuation marks as visual signifiers of shifts in breath and breathing. Looking at the relationship between historical written testimonies and ancestral knowledge shared through oral traditions, the artist uses video and performance to create direct encounters with audiences, encouraging mutual empathy, learning, and understanding.

Artist Interview: Alberta Whittle on How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth.

A close up photograph of vinyl text on one of the gallery windows. The text is green and in a serif font. We can read part of the text. These fragments say: 'for tears yet in this birth/ re-birth...any times have I done this? How many times ha... Together. Apart. Together.... Recognition vibrates in my fingers, my chest... make family with me.

About the artist

Alberta Whittle (b.1980, Bridgetown, Barbados) lives and works in Glasgow. Her practice-led research involves performance, writing, digital collage and video installation. Whittle received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2011 and she is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art. Whittle was also the 2018 recipient of The Margaret Tait Award. 

Whittle’s work has been exhibited in various solo and group shows within institutions including the 13th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2019), GoMA, Glasgow (2019), The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh (2019), The Showroom, London (2018), National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2018), RAW Material, Dakar (2018), FADA Gallery, Johannesburg (2018), the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017), FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (2015), Goethe On Main, Johannesburg (2015), at the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015), and BOZAR, Brussels (2014). Several of Whittle’s digital prints were recently purchased by the Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art.

Alberta Whittle: Exhibition Notes

Click here to download the Exhibition Notes for Alberta Whittle: How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth
Download
1.4 MB (PDF)

Exhibition images

An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Three framed works on a bright blue wall. Left to right, these are mainly red, green, and blue, and they all have a white border.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph showing an installation in gallery one. Two small objects mounted on the wall are seen to the right. A screen is in the back corner showing text. A costume hangs away from the wall to the left, with fragments of fabric such as tartan. The walls are bright blue and the floor is grey, the objects are spot lit and a projector can be seen hanging from the ceiling.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
A photograph of an image displayed on a wooden stand. Bright blue walls can be seen in the background. The image shows a colonial era print, mainly in yellow and Cooper brown.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph of the auxiliary gallery at the back of gallery two. A seat with cushions and throws is the the middle of a blue painted room, the plinth painted green. On the right hand wall can be seen a framed photograph. Straight ahead on the left is a monitor on the wall showing a blue image. The window is bright and there are cushions on the floor next to it.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still shows the sea.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still a black person wearing a white shirt in a wood clad room.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Three framed works on a bright blue wall. Left to right, these are mainly red, green, and blue, and they all have a white border.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph showing an installation in gallery one. Two small objects mounted on the wall are seen to the right. A screen is in the back corner showing text. A costume hangs away from the wall to the left, with fragments of fabric such as tartan. The walls are bright blue and the floor is grey, the objects are spot lit and a projector can be seen hanging from the ceiling.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
A photograph of an image displayed on a wooden stand. Bright blue walls can be seen in the background. The image shows a colonial era print, mainly in yellow and Cooper brown.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph of the auxiliary gallery at the back of gallery two. A seat with cushions and throws is the the middle of a blue painted room, the plinth painted green. On the right hand wall can be seen a framed photograph. Straight ahead on the left is a monitor on the wall showing a blue image. The window is bright and there are cushions on the floor next to it.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still shows the sea.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still a black person wearing a white shirt in a wood clad room.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Three framed works on a bright blue wall. Left to right, these are mainly red, green, and blue, and they all have a white border.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph showing an installation in gallery one. Two small objects mounted on the wall are seen to the right. A screen is in the back corner showing text. A costume hangs away from the wall to the left, with fragments of fabric such as tartan. The walls are bright blue and the floor is grey, the objects are spot lit and a projector can be seen hanging from the ceiling.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
A photograph of an image displayed on a wooden stand. Bright blue walls can be seen in the background. The image shows a colonial era print, mainly in yellow and Cooper brown.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
Photograph of the auxiliary gallery at the back of gallery two. A seat with cushions and throws is the the middle of a blue painted room, the plinth painted green. On the right hand wall can be seen a framed photograph. Straight ahead on the left is a monitor on the wall showing a blue image. The window is bright and there are cushions on the floor next to it.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still shows the sea.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.
An installation image of gallery two showing a green structure like a building with a corrugated roof and a pink trim, as though it is sinking into the floor. On the back of one of these structures a film is projected. White plastic chairs are positioned in front of the screen, with iron chains around their bases. The film still a black person wearing a white shirt in a wood clad room.
Photograph by Ruth Clark.