Ebony G. Patterson

Ebony G.Patterson, ... when the cry takes root ..., 2021. Installation view at Tate Liverpool,Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Ebony G.Patterson, ... when the cry takes root ..., 2021. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Ebony G.Patterson, ... when the cry takes root ..., 2021. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Ebony G.Patterson, ... when the cry takes root ..., 2021. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Ebony G. Patterson, ...fraught...for those who bear bare witness, 2018. Installation view atTate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

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Ebony G. Patterson (b. 1981, Kingston, Jamaica) lives and works in Kingston, Jamaica and Chicago, USA. Patterson’s multi-layered practice uses beauty as a tool, employing opulent, hand-embellished surfaces and brightly coloured patterns to entice viewers to bear witness to social injustices. The work directs the viewer to look beyond the facades created by the ‘fabricated fantasies of a consumerist culture and consider the realities of those ‘not touched by the glitter and gold’. Patterson is the recipient of the United States Artists Award (2018). Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Athens Biennial, Greece (2021); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA (2020); Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark (2020); Pérez Art Museum Miami; USA (2019); and 32nd São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2016).

Project Description

Ebony G. Patterson presented hand embellished textile works at Tate Liverpool, including ...fraught...for those who bear/bare witness (2018), as well as new floor work, ... when the cry takes root ... (2021). Patterson considers gardens as a space of both beauty and burial, filled with fleeting aesthetics and mourning. They serve as a “postcolonial” symbol of the past that is never fully buried and barely visible. Patterson’s works further reflect on her interest in the disenfranchised communities of today – particularly of the working class. The objects and materials, each with its own narrative, are assembled together to create a new meaning – yet there is a sense of fragility as they barely hang onto each other. Against the floral backdrop, the objects and figures on the ground-level epitomize images of death – of the bodies that have fallen to the ground. Patterson’s gardens are never far from notions of violence, of memorial, of blood and tears.

The new work is commissioned by Liverpool Biennial with support from VIA Art Fund, Monique Meloche Gallery Chicago, and Rodney Miller.

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