Life Force of Plants – Arts in Conversation
Thursday 13 Nov, 18.30-20.00
Joy Gregory – Christine Eyene – Kuamen – Sandrine Nganga
Join us on at Exhibition Research Lab for a conversation between Joy Gregory and Christine Eyene, followed by a restitution of multidisciplinary artist Kuamen’s ERL research residency, with Sandrine Nganga.
Taking its cue from Joy Gregory’s series The Invisible Life Force of Plants (2020) exhibited in “What the Mountain Has Seen” curated by Eyene, the conversation will introduce the audience to Gregory’s experimental photography and printing practice, her research into Britain’s 17th-19th century economic botany, and the migration of plants. It will also explore the topics and aesthetics represented in her work which is currently the subject of a major survey exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in London.
The plant narratives and themes of vegetal, mineral, and cultural extraction addressed in the exhibition will be expanded to material production through the symbolism of African masks originally carved from the trees of dense central African forests.
Kuamen, Eyene, and Nganga will approach the mask as a creation imbued with spirituality, cultural traditions, and history. They will discuss the artist’s research into new processes of mask-making, the collaboration with LJMU’s Fashion and 3D Lab (Fab Lab) to create a prototype and its symbolism in the context of Liverpool’s Black diasporic experience.
This event closes the exhibition “What the Mountain Has Seen” that will give way to a hybrid display of Kuamen’s prototype mask from 20 November to 19 December 2025.
Free event, open to all. Book your free ticket here.
Supported by LJMU’s Enhancing Research Culture Grant.
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Biographies
Joy Gregory is a London-based British photographer of Jamaican heritage. After studying at Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art in the 1980s, her early images explored self-representation and portraiture. Her work addresses the impact of colonialism on global perceptions of beauty, memory, botany, health, and traditional knowledge. As a photographer, she has worked over decades in various media, including video, digital and analogue photography, film installation, Victorian print processes, and textile.
Recent exhibitions include: “Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey”, Whitechapel Gallery, London (until 1 March 2026); “A Taste of Home” – Art On The Underground Commission, Heathrow Terminal 4, London, 2024; “Labo*r an Invitation to Action… a Basis for Hope”, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 2024; “Love of a Long Vocation”, St Mary’s Hospital, London, 2024; “Women in Revolt! Art, Activism and the Women’s Movement in the UK 1970-1990”, Tate Britain, London, 2023-2024 (and touring); “The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion”, Somerset House, London 2023-2024; 9th Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, 2023.
Gregory is recipient of the Freelands Award 2023 for her Whitechapel survey exhibition. She is also editor of Shining Lights: An Anthology of Black British Women’s Photography in 1980s and 1990’s (London: MACK/Autograph, 2024). Her work is part of many collections including Autograph, London; Arts Council Collection, UK; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; and Yale British Art Collection, USA.
Kuamen is UK-born, Aulnay-based musician, poet, slammer, rapper, and self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance.
Born in London to a Congolese father and a Mauritian mother who met in Russia, he has lived in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris, for over 25 years. He grew up in the Emmaüs social housing estate, which is home to a large community of residents of African descent. The town of Aulnay-sous-Bois is deeply stigmatised by urban violence and unemployment.
The artist’s origins and place of residence forced him to confront social phenomena such as racism, poverty, segregation, and overconsumption from a very early age. Inspired by American hip-hop culture, which he saw as a reflection of his own experiences in council housing, he began writing poetry through politically engaged music. After obtaining an MBA in international marketing and working for several years in the marketing field, he decided to devote himself entirely to his artistic career.
As a visual artist, Kuamen is currently presenting a solo exhibition entitled ‘Kuamen: Creep to the mic like a phantom’ at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London, until 13 December 2025. His work I Have Also Seen (2025) was performed at ERL Gallery last June. Other projects include ‘Drawing Together 201 Exquisite Corpses’ curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist (2022); commissions and residencies with Fonds de dotation Verrecchia and Musée Rodin (Meudon).
Nsaka Sandrine Nganga is a French Congolese fashion designer, educator and multidisciplinary artist based in Liverpool. She teaches digital fashion, technical design and 3D design at the Liverpool School of Art & Creative Industries (LJMU). Her practice bridges traditional craftsmanship, digital innovation, and contemporary culture.
As the founder of NS Digital Art, Sandrine develops projects that merge fashion, music and immersive technologies, including Music Global Culture Fashion Style, an upcoming programme connecting music, design and digital storytelling. Her current research focuses on Congolese heritage and innovation, exploring how ancestral textile practices, particularly Kuba raffia, can be reimagined through digital fashion to question notions of identity, sustainability and cultural transmission.
She has presented her work in New York, Paris and Liverpool, and alongside her design and research practice, Sandrine is also a DJ, beatmaker and music producer, expressing a hybrid creative voice where fashion and music converge to celebrate diversity and innovation.
Dr Christine Eyene is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art and Co-Director of the Exhibition Research Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, and Research Curator at Tate Liverpool. At LJMU, she teaches Exhibition Histories and curatorial practices from an African and Diasporic perspective. From 2012 to 2022, she worked with Professor Lubaina Himid CBE RA on Making Histories Visible, an interdisciplinary visual arts research project then based at the University of Central Lancashire.
Her recent exhibitions include “Kuamen: Creep to the mic like a phantom”, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London (until 17 Jan 2026); “George Hallett: Home and Exile”, Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière, Paris, and “The Plant the Stowed Away”, Tate Liverpool + RIBA North, Liverpool (2025). She was curator of Landskrona Foto Festival 2024’s Konsthall exhibition with “Where to Land the Eye” in Landskrona, Sweden, and “Seeds and Souls”, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023-24).
Dr Eyene’s latest essay ‘Lolodorf: Memories of a land’ is soon to be published in Ibou Coulibaly Diop, Franck Hermann Ekra and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (eds.), Deberlinization: Refabulating the World, A Theory of Praxis. Zurich: Diaphanes, 2026. Recent published essays include ‘Where an artist finds freedom’ in Alicia Knock (ed.), “Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950-2000”. Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2025.