Worlds within Worlds: Eruptions from a “still-life” Microverse

Apex University College,

Accra, Ghana

06 July — 31 August, 2024

Solo Exhibition

Worlds within Worlds (Eruptions from a “still-life” Microverse)

Curated by Patrick Nii Okanta Ankrah

Worlds within Worlds, is a culmination of years of experimentation, reverse-engineering and close observation of the plasticity of food polymers and their apparent but hidden universes.

Thompson’s interest in deconstructing foods in their material and pictorial representation comes as a critique and expansion of the still-life genre. Thompson’s experimentations are birthed from the revolutionary teachings of Prof. kąrî’kạchä seid’ou who employed his class on “still-life”, as a means of departure to develop critical attention to small mundane things which may be relegated to the backgrounds of human-centred subjects. The tradition of still-life is typically a pictorial representation of fruits and flowers on a table or banal objects or personal effects, either painted or drawn and sometimes with religious connotations and contemplation of human futility or death (vanitas).

What Thompson does, is to go beyond the traditional setting of food on a table for humans, to experiment with foods in themselves, like waakye (rice and beans), fufu, noodles, and jollof rice into new forms. She does this by paying attention to the lively material processes with foods such as fermentation, crystallization, plasticity and other micro-forms and processes that challenge literal representations of foods we are familiar with.

More Info

Photo Credit: Images Courtesy of Isaac Gyamfi

Artworks

Bisgullies, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced wheat | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Krater Slopes 2.0, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced noodles | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Kanzo Crater 6v0.005, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced ‘tuo zaafi’ | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Krater 3.0, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced noodles | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Cavities 1.0, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced noodles | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Kavity 2.0, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced noodles, wheat, and cassava starch | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Hilly V2, 2024

Micrograph digital elevation model (DEM) sampled from post-produced wheat | Print on Acrylic Glass | 33.5cm diameter

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Rococo Jollof, 2024

3D microtopography sampled from ultra-processed jollof rice sample | digital elevation modelling (DEM) and 2D topography overlap | Ink Jet Print on Paper | 175cm x 107cm

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Booklice Jollof, 2024

3D microtopography sampled from ultra-processed jollof rice samples with booklice | digital elevation modelling (DEM) and 2D topography overlap | Ink Jet Print on Paper | 321cm x 170cm

Additional Description

Booklice jollof features a ‘fossilized’ topography from actual booklice that feed on my work, who carve new forms as the food substrates disintegrate over time. Booklice are as big as 1mm, which was captured in the foodscape through microscopy and developed with DEM, creating a fossilized form within the food topography.

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Two Kanzo Worlds Colliding, 2024

3D microtopography sampled from ultra-processed jollof rice samples | digital elevation modelling (DEM) and 2D topography overlap | Ink Jet Print on Paper | 309cm x 155cm

Additional Description

The converging circles are similar to double hemisphere maps which is here re-conceptualised into convergence of different modified rice substrates overlapping each other at the ends.

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Spongy Kanzo, 2024

3D microtopography sampled from ultra-processed jollof rice sample | 2D topography with 3D Print | Ink Jet Print on Paper and 3D Print made of PLA | 45cm x 45cm

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Jollof Pop Sponge, 2023

Food substrate installation sampled from ultra-processed jollof rice sample | Variable Dimensions

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1 Channel Screen, 2024

Texture maps from micrographs used in the generation of topography; a video of modified food samples under a microscope, made from modified rice and Jollof foods; and a video of booklice consuming food samples.

Duration: 12m 18s Resolution: 4K
Sound: Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah

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Grainy Food LED, 2023/24

These are particle system animations generated from microscopy videos of the microscope "panning" over the micro-landscapes of my modified food samples. They also include particle topography generations from microscopy videos of booklice shaping and consuming modified food samples.

Duration: 7m 58s Resolution: 4K
Sound: Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah

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