A new public art project has opened this week with a display of works by Khadija Saye, the young artist who tragically died in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.
Nine large-scale prints of the 24-year-old artist’s most celebrated works are on display across the façade of 236 Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill in an installation entitled In this space we breathe (7 July - 9 Oct 2020). Saye created the works to explore the migration of traditional Gambian spiritual practices.
The installation is the first of three site-specific exhibitions that will form part of the Breath is Invisible art project, which was created by local businesswoman Eiesha Bharti Pasricha. The initiative, which was “born out of an urgency to address issues of social inequality and injustice”, works collaboratively with young creatives and arts organisations in the area.
The next two installations will present new commissions by artists that have been created in partnership with the local community. The second exhibition, To be invisible (11 August - 4 September), will be an aural and visual 3D installation by artists Martyn Ware and Zachary Eastwood-Bloom inspired by the current events associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
The third, Joy Gregory’s The invisible life force of plants (8 September - 9 October) will explore the artist’s research into the history of botany between the 17th and 19th centuries, revealing how everyday plants thought of as ‘native’ species have their origins elsewhere.
Along with the art project, a new programme has been set up in memory of Saye to address the lack of diversity in the arts sector, providing opportunities for young people from BAME and disadvantaged communities across the UK.
The Khadija Saye IntoArts initiative will be run by IntoUniversity, a charity dedicated to helping school leavers progress to higher education. The scheme will incorporate arts-based activities from a range of disciplines into IntoUniversity's existing programme.
Some proceeds from the sale of Saye’s work during the installation will go to the IntoArts initiative.
Saye was a much-loved member of the museum community who was working on the learning team at the London Transport Museum at the time of her death.
