Adéọlá & Catriona Abuneke
© Adéọlá and Catriona Abuneke
The exhibition ain't I a woman? explores the history, heritage, and future of the industrial movement, focusing on the impact of suffrage in Merthyr Tydfil, particularly the role Rose Mary Crawshay of Cyfarthfa Castle played during this significant period in society.
Artist Adéọla, in collaboration with Catriona Abuneke, presents photography, bespoke wallpaper, and installations that blend imagery from the Cyfarthfa Castle archives with both newly staged and existing photographs depicting the Yorùbá goddess Adje, the patroness of trade and economic prosperity.
These works aim to explore how objects, portraiture, and stories are interwoven to create narratives—such as the concept of the home as an exhibition space—and how the items within our homes reflect our identities and activities. Bespoke wallpaper works created for this exhibition illustrate this, incorporating an imagined Vèvè (drawn representations of Yorùbá and Vodou spirits) for the goddess Adje. There are repeated motifs of shoes, which represent the thousands of children who were forced to work in the steel industry that the Chawshay family, and the wealth that led to the creation of Cyfartha Castle, profited off. The Black bodies present in the works represent the slaves who were also part of this industrial empire, and memorialises the thousands of individuals who suffered, died and lost their humanity in the name of this industrial revolution.
Opening Hours
Tuesday - Sunday, 10am - 4pm (free admission with festival map)
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Adéọlá is a Trinbagonian artist based in Wales. Rooted in ritual, carnival, masquerade aesthetics, her work is interested in the ways in which diaspora people perform fragments – how we express identity and belonging through memory, re-imagination, creolisation, transformation, re-presentation and the making of sacred spaces. Her practice involves drawing, painting, performance art, spoken word and writing. Adéọlá’s life and experiences as a mother and migrant have informed aspects of her practice and continues to contribute to the ways in which her work takes shape. Adéọlá is Founder of Laku Neg (Black Yard) - an artist-run company that promotes the exchange of African diaspora and indigenous knowledge through conversations, articles and events that engage philosophy, heritage, arts and living culture.
Catriona Abuneke is a photographer and video artist who works in collaboration with other creatives and organisations whilst continuing her personal practice in photo and video.