OSLO.- PROCESS is an exhibition in development by Marie Cole, Haweya Jama, Ayesha Jordan, and Lara Okafor. It is an inquiry into creative processes and how they encourage critical thinking, communal growth, exchange, and defiance; specifically, from Afrodiasporic perspectives. Their aim to co-create an ever-evolving environment that can be influenced by the numerous bodies and ideas that engage with the space.
The six weeks are divided into three chapters: cleanse, cultivate, and harvest. These three seasons are in conversation with plant cycles. They also describe the PROCESS we hope participants will engage in during the exhibition period. Artists Ayan Abdi, Javon Bennett, and Waldane Walker will use the gallery as an open studio, allowing their practices to evolve in dialogue with the public.
We are living in a time where we need more than just production for consumption. The institutional gallery space will therefore be opened up for use as an open studio by three Afrodiasporic artists whose practices involve working in a communal and process-oriented way. These artists will each have an intervention during the course of the last two seasons (cultivate and harvest).
There will be various publicly-engaged workshops, events, and performances. Our aim is to transform the gallery into a space that feels like a “cup of hibiscus tea on a cold winter day”. There will be opportunities for community-oriented artists and collectives to have events in the space.
Lara Okafor (they/them) is a writer, software developer, and organiser. They are currently Fotogalleriet’s Curatorial Fellow ‘24-‘25. Lara is interested in Black Studies, prison abolition, speculative fiction, queerness, technology, and how those topics overlap. They have written a thesis about digital security for queer people of colour, a short story in the Norwegian sci-fi anthology ‘A Line Through Gravity’, and pieces published in Fett, Billedkunst, TrAP, and Samora Forum. Lara has also moderated conversations, and held workshops and talks at places such as Office for Contemporary Art (OCA), Litteraturhuset, MUNCH Museum, and Kunstnernes hus.
Ayesha Jordan (she/her) is a multidisciplinary performer and creator based in Oslo, Norway. Her current research is based in applied permaculture studies, regenerative community/ecosystem formation and adaptation, event curation, heritage, and how these can be explored through performance, and inform performance methodologies. This research is currently being integrated into a forthcoming project titled Shasta Geaux Pop presents: Shasta Greaux Crops.
In 2021 and 2022 Ayesha presented two iterations of Gather (g)Round (Observe & Interact and In Relation). It is an ongoing multi-iterative research project seeking to redefine concepts of community, ecosystems, and gathering, incorporating twelve permaculture principles within its stages of development. Each principle is broken down into immersive events spread over the course of several days or several weeks.
Ayesha’s artistic pursuits extend beyond conventional boundaries, intentionally amplifying marginalized voices, especially from the global majority and disenfranchised communities. Her work encompasses themes such as ritual-making, multigenerational knowledge and exploration, archives, legacy, and collaborative and cooperative modes of production.
Haweya Jama (she/her) is a computer scientist and writer. She worked at Oslo municipality as a systems developer and is currently taking her masters in ‘Technology, Humans, and Society’ at the University of Agder. Haweya shares her thoughts around technology, philosophy, and critical theory in her newsletter ‘haweya’, which she describes as a place where she wants to “chip away at technological ugliness using black methodologies; to create cracks and breaks by which better technologies can spring forth”. She exhibited a video work during the exhibition ‘Educate, Agitate, Organize’ at Kunsthall Oslo in 2024.
Marie Cole (she/her) is a Guinean-Norwegian artist with a background in Visual Communication, currently completing her Master’s in Art and Public Space at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her research-based practice examines heritage, diasporic narratives, pleasure, and collective care within BIPOCQ communities. Using mediums such as textiles, video, ritualistic performance, and community-engaged craftwork, Cole’s work has recently focused on soil as a central material. For her, soil symbolizes a way to unearth personal and collective histories, fostering care and exploring alternative ways of being.
As a co-founder of the Diaspora Kollektiv, Cole has facilitated workshops using collective craftwork to engage primarily queer and BIPOC individuals in the Nordics. Social practice and public engagement remain central to her installations, reflecting her dedication to community-oriented art.
In 2023, Cole exhibited at the Autumn Exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus and the Drawing Triennial with Tenthaus. She also held a solo exhibition, Connecting Dots and Knots: An Introduction to a Series of Rituals, at Kunsthall Oslo. In 2024, she contributed writing and workshops at Bergen Assembly and the Open Out Festival in Tromsø. For the Diaspora Kollektiv, she led programming for their exhibition at Old Munch and hosted youth workshops during Black History Month Norway.
