Inherited Forms

Inherited Forms brings together the practices of five Ugandan women artists whose work explores how material knowledge, memory and cultural inheritance move across generations and into contemporary forms of making. At the centre of the exhibition is the Ugandan mat, or omukeeka, as a point of departure for thinking about inheritance as an active process. A mat carries knowledge through its materials, patterns and techniques, as well as through the people, relationships and communities involved in its making.

What happens when an inherited form moves into another material, another context or another generation? What remains, what changes, and what becomes possible?

The exhibition begins with Keerera Nellie’s photographs of the Karibu Project, documenting women artisans engaged in the traditional practice of mat-making. Her images draw attention to the materials, gestures and relationships through which cultural knowledge is shared and transmitted. This lineage continues through the work of the participating artists. Olivia Mary Nantongo uses the traditional woven mat as a canvas and reflective surface, combining acrylic paint, oil pastels, foreign and repurposed objects to explore identity and relationships. Darren Akoragye draws from childhood memories of her grandmother’s mat, reimagining its physical form through digital landscapes. Laruni Diana Mary transforms maize husks into sculptural forms and masks, while Namala Olivia works with raffia and banana fibre to create sculptures inspired by everyday Ugandan life.

Together, the works bring craft-based materials and knowledge into contemporary artistic practices, creating new relationships between inherited forms, materials and ideas. Inherited Forms considers what happens when craft enters contemporary art and how this changes the way we understand both. Craft carries histories of skill, material knowledge, labour and community, yet its place within contemporary art and collecting continues to evolve.

The exhibition invites viewers to encounter these materials as part of a living artistic practice and to consider their place within the future of art collecting. As artists continue to reinterpret inherited materials through sculpture, photography, painting and digital practice, craft can be understood as a continuing source of contemporary artistic knowledge, with the capacity to shape how future collections represent culture, material history and artistic practice.

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