“a most beautiful experiment”
wani toaishara
2 Mar → 11 May 2024

wani toaishara, 'a most beautiful experiment', 2024, installation view, West Space, Collingwood Yards. Photograph by Janelle Low.

West Space premieres a new film by wani toaishara.

Grounded in the understanding that light and time are filmic materials, a most beautiful experiment responds to artist Jean Depara (1928-1997)'s historic documentation of Kinshasa's nightlife through film installation, blending past and present in a form of temporal collapse.

There is a shared belief amongst the Shi, to whom wani toaishara is Indigenous, that the past exists in front of us because that is the only direction in which we can see. We look forwards to the past, our future somewhere behind us. Existing at the point in which past and present meet, a most beautiful experiment is not only an attempt to explore embodied, personal and political memories of the future. Having materialised these future memories in film, it is also an attempt to correct them.

"This work is an attempt at materialising Black life, love, and resilience as art forms in and of themselves, democratising access to the tools of freedom-making, and claiming space to unpack liberation as both an independent and a collective act." — wani toaishara

This project was commissioned by West Space, and presented in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria for PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography. Supported by Centre for Projection Art.

Program

Responding to a most beautiful experiment, Wed 8 May, 4 → 6pm

West Space and un Projects held a workshop inviting emerging and aspiring writers to collectively experiment through writing exercises and discussion around wani toaishara's work.

Wani stands in front of his exhibition text on the walls at West Space. He is dressed in all black. The text says "Wani Toaishara. A most beautiful experiment. 2 March to 11 May"
a shadowed figure sits and watches a large projection in a bean bag. The projection shows a black and white scene of a dancer in motion.
A video still from a large projection hangs in a dark room. In the video, a man wearing a white shirt holds a large decorative mask over his face.
A large black and white projection showing a dancer in motion.
A large projection of a figure standing from the waist up. The film is in Black and White
A large scale projection is being projected on a white screen that is suspended in West Space gallery. On the projection we see an empty black screen with a subtitle of white text that says "A black was always addressed in the familiar form,"
An overhead light projector sits on the desk in the West Space office. There is a lit up text being projected on a black curtain. The text isn't clearly visible.

wani toaishara is a Congolese artist living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. Across photography, performance, installation and film, wani's practice explores Black life and representation, dislocation and Indigeneity as well as the effects of colonialism on Africa and its diaspora, often using his personal history to create intimate and personal works. The use of urban spaces in his films is significant in the way he transforms banal spaces into dramatic stages for exploration and reflection.