Nolan Oswald Dennis: overturns at Swiss Institute

Featured on the ground floor at SI are the latest iterations of ongoing bodies of work that model the spatiotemporal antagonisms between the racialized, propertied world and heterogenous Black and Indigenous imaginaries that dynamically co-exist with, under, and against this world. Black Liberation Zodiac (Kgositsile’s Folly) (2022-ongoing) remaps the night sky across the ecliptic plane from the position of an observer located in the southern hemisphere. Presented alongside a video featuring interviews with an African astrophysicist and other interlocutors, the work is composed of a monumental infinity curve that substitutes the symbols of the standard Eurasian Zodiac constellation with iconography drawn from a global archive of militant and anti-capitalist Black liberation struggles. Moving from celestial to terrestrial realms, Isivivane (2023-ongoing), developed in conversation with geologists and geology museum curators, intervenes into discussions on restitution by creating digital and physical simulations of collected rock samples from various settler colonial contexts. Specifications for a Reverse Archaeology (2022-23) is comprised of a single-channel film, a lightbox diagram, and custom pillow seating inspired by digitized renderings of a sacred landscape in Southern Africa. Through the work, Dennis ruminates on geo-spiritual relations and conditions of landlessness, reimagining the extractivist instruments of archeological science for alternative, potentially liberatory purposes. Other works on the ground floor subject familiar representations of the globe to playful inversions, sequential multiplications, and culturally symbolic rearticulations, challenging universalizing Western scientific claims to planetary knowledge with the unruly suggestion of incessantly produced counter-cosmologies.

The works on the second floor form a pedagogical environment and rehearsal space to prepare viewers for the possible arrival of a decolonized planet. A series of thermal printer sculptures produce dialogues between South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko and a range of other bygone, anti-imperialist thinkers such as Amílcar Cabral, Toni Cade Bambara, and Malcolm X. Combining historiographic critique and poetic computation, each of the dialogues are generated by an algorithm that searches for a pair of words within the texts and speeches of these Black radical figures. Nearby, the newly commissioned wall diagram, recurse 4 a late planet (lush) (2024) utilizes African fractal geometries, mathematical abstractions, astronomical symbols, and lyrical annotations to reflect on the systemic logics that reproduce the world’s social hierarchies and exclusions. Over the course of the exhibition, a pair of specially designed shelves, inspired by library furniture, will gather written notes and reflections by visitors to SI.

overturns is accompanied by The Black Earth Study Club, a series of transdisciplinary public programs occurring over four chapters that will reflect on Black metaphysics, anti-colonial pedagogy, digital futures, and land dispossession. Bringing together artists and scholars predominantly from the African continent and its global diasporas, these events aim to create a temporary space of conviviality, sociality, and collective learning.

On the occasion of the exhibition, SI together with Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town and Koenig will publish the first ever monograph on Dennis’s practice in April 2025. The publication will feature newly commissioned contributions by KJ Abudu, Renée Green, Thato Mogotsi, and Zoé Samudzi, and reprinted texts by a global constellation of artists and theorists whose work inform Dennis’s research.

This exhibition is organized by KJ Abudu, Assistant Curator, Public Programs and Residencies. Special thanks to Alison Coplan, Chief Curator.

Nolan Oswald Dennis: overturns is made possible through support from A4 Arts Foundation. SI gratefully acknowledges the Ubuntu circle and additionally wishes to thank Goodman Gallery for production support. The exhibition is presented in partnership with Gasworks, London.

Swiss Institute (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art institution dedicated to promoting forward-thinking and experimental art making through innovative exhibitions, education, and programs. Committed to the highest standards of curatorial and educational excellence, SI serves as a platform for emerging artists, catalyzes new perspectives on celebrated work, and fosters appreciation for under-recognized positions. SI is committed to being an organization that is diverse, equitable, accessible, and environmentally conscious in its work, structure, and programming. Open to the public free-of-charge, Swiss Institute seeks to explore how a Swiss context can be the starting point for international conversations in the fields of visual and performing arts, design, and architecture.