8 yams, 8 small yams,
8 eggs, a cow and a cockerel
About Forma’s R&D Scheme
Each year Forma awards Research & Development grants in the support of new ideas, enabling the time and resources needed for artists to experiment, take risks and learn new skills.
Recent receipts include; Onyeka Igwe, josiane m.h pozi (in partnership with Auto Italia), Kate Carr, Sophie Hoyle (in partnership with Unlimited) and Amartey Golding.
8 yams, 8 small yams, 8 eggs, a cow and a cockerel
Onyeka Igwe
9–14 August 2021
Onyeka Igwe presents 8 yams, 8 small yams, 8 eggs, a cow and a cockerel – an installation and dinner at FormaHQ recounting personal olfactory and gustatory experiences of recompense.
He brought out the cow and the eight chicken eggs and one white cock and eight large yams and eight small yams, and told Igwe to take these things and give them to the people of his town so that he and they could hold the ritual eating together, in order to reconcile them from that day forward. Omenuko, Pita Nwana (1933)
From 9–14 August 2021 Igwe will present ideas in progress at FormaHQ recounting personal olfactory and gustatory experiences of recompense. It draws a close to their 20/21 Research & Development grant through which Igwe has continued to build upon a long term research project A Chorus of Shame which investigates traditions and practices of reparation across time and geography that emanate from the law, the land and the body, ultimately asking the question, what are the Other ways reconciliation has been sought and reparations paid?
A short film exploring ritual eating practices in West Africa will be screened in a room diffused with scents formulated around memories of reconciliation. There will be opportunities to engage with this research through written responses to the installation and a dinner inspired by a meal of atonement featured in the first published Igbo novel, Omenuko.
Artist Biography
Onyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation, born and based in London, UK. Through her work, Onyeka is animated by the question — how do we live together? — with particular interest in the ways the sensorial, spatial and non-canonical ways of knowing can provide answers to this question. She uses embodiment, archives, narration and text to create structural ‘figure-of-eights’, a form that exposes a multiplicity of narratives. The work comprises untying strands and threads, anchored by a rhythmic editing style, as well as close attention to the dissonance, reflection and amplification that occurs between image and sound. Her works have been shown in the UK and internationally at film festivals and galleries. She was awarded the New Cinema Award at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival 2019 and the 2020 Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Experimental Film.
Covid Safety at FormaHQ
We are excited to welcome you to FormaHQ. Following the move to step 4 of the Covid-19 restrictions, we would like to ensure that we continue to make this space as safe and comfortable as possible for everyone.
We recognise that everyone will have different personal choices around distancing, safety and boundaries. Please remember that the person you are sharing space with may have conditions that aren’t visible, or may care or live with someone who is vulnerable and may need more space than you.
We encourage everyone to continue wearing masks and to social distance as much as possible inside FormaHQ and the garden. Masks will be available on the door.
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8 yams, 8 small yams, 8 eggs, a cow and a cockerel (2021). Image courtesy the artist.
About Forma’s R&D Scheme
Each year Forma awards Research & Development grants in the support of new ideas, enabling the time and resources needed for artists to experiment, take risks and learn new skills.
Recent receipts include; Onyeka Igwe, josiane m.h pozi (in partnership with Auto Italia), Kate Carr, Sophie Hoyle (in partnership with Unlimited) and Amartey Golding.