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Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

  • Exhibitions
    • Current
    • Upcoming
    • Past
  • Calendar
  • Learning
    • Artist Residency
    • Bookshelf Residency
    • Digital Projects
    • Public Programs
    • Schools & Community
    • Special Projects
  • Visit
  • About
    • Staff
    • Governance
    • Press
    • Partnerships
    • Opportunities
    • Annual Report
  • Shop
  • Get Involved
    • Membership
    • Patron Groups
    • Institutional Support
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Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry June 10, 2023 ➽ September 10, 2023
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Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry June 10, 2023 ➽ September 10, 2023

Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry

Alberta Whittle, _between a whisper and a cry_ (film still) , 2019. HD video, 45 min. Courtesy of the artist; The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow ; and Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York

Originally from Barbados and currently based in Scotland, Alberta Whittle (b. 1980, Bridgetown, Barbados) directly engages her diasporic heritage to create works that meditate on the journeys, both historical and present, of Black communities across the Caribbean Sea and beyond. Challenging the ongoing erasure of Black bodies, voices, and narratives, Whittle’s research-driven practice is informed by an active process of remembering, often resulting in choreographed installations that invoke self-compassion and collective care as integral to building a decolonized future.

This presentation, the artist’s first in Los Angeles, features Whittle’s 2019 multimedia installation between a whisper and a cry. Projected onto the remnants of a sunken chattel house—an architectural structure ubiquitous to the artist’s native homeland—the featured video is composed of archival and filmed footage with a narrative that traverses month by month through the hurricane season. From “June too soon” to “October all over,” Whittle’s work summons the ever-present ghosts of colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the climate crisis as she chronicles the entangled histories of empire and environmental catastrophe across bodies and borders. Whether in drought or flood, water is revealed as a site to absorb, sink, and hold these hauntings. In its narrative, the work references the writings of Black studies scholar Christina Sharpe, undertaking her description of anti-Blackness as a kind of “weather”—an almost atmospheric phenomenon—that oscillates and submerges, washing over entire communities like the waves of blue that envelop the gallery visitor. Interrogating the memories and life that these waters hold, between a whisper and a cry asks audiences to consider their own bodies and their relationship to the ongoing effects of colonialism and slavery still rippling outward. In this way, Whittle’s work is an offering, an act towards repair, an insistence on survival, and an invitation to release.

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Installation view, Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, June 10–September 10, 2023. Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA LA
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June 10, 2023, 2023, 3 PM - 6 PM
Open House at ICA LA
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June 30, 2023, 2023, 6 PM - 7:30 PM
Art Buzz: Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry
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Whittle

June 28, 2023, 2023, 7 PM - 8 PM
Artist POV Tour: Yves B. Golden on Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry
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July 26, 2023, 2023, 7 PM - 9 PM
Alberta Whittle: Beading + Reading Workshop
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Icala 2023 06 12 077

July 08, 2023, 2023, 4:30 PM - 6 PM
ASL Tour of Summer Exhibitions + Reception
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August 02, 2023, 2023, 7 PM - 8:30 PM
Lecture: Auttrianna Ward on Alberta Whittle
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Exhibition Guide (English)
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Alberta Whittle: between a whisper and a cry is organized by Amanda Sroka, Senior Curator, with Caroline Ellen Liou, Curatorial Assistant.

Special thanks to Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York and The Modern Institute, Glasgow.

ICA LA is supported by the Curator’s Council and Fieldwork Council.

Alberta Whittle (b. 1980, Bridgetown, Barbados; lives and works in Glasgow) works across several mediums, including drawing, digital collage, film and video installation, sculpture, performance, and writing. Whittle’s practice prioritizes questions of self-care and compassion, while considering the historic legacies and contemporary expressions of anti-Blackness, colonialism, and migration. She often utilizes archival materials and found footage in her work, which is frequently produced in collaboration with her accomplices—a network of artists, choreographers, and performers. Whittle received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2011 and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh. Most recently, she represented Scotland at the 59th Venice Biennale and has exhibited in a number of solo and group shows, including those held at National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2023); The Holburne Museum, Bath (2023); Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York (2022); Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2022); Kunsthall Trondheim (2021); Somerset House, London (2021); Tate Britain, London (2021); Dundee Contemporary Arts (2019); RAW Material, Dakar (2018); and Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017), among others. Whittle is the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award (2022), the Turner Bursary (2020), the Frieze Artist Award (2020), a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award (2020), as well as the Margaret Tait Award (2018/2019).
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