Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The Light
Gallery 1853 - Oldham - 2025
‘The Seemingly Innocent Are Not Without Danger’ (Detail) - Photographed by Eda Sancakdar - 2024
‘Entangled’ (unframed) - Photographed by Eda Sancakdar - 2024
‘Grapple’ (unframed) - Photographed by Eda Sancakdar - 2024
This predominantly new body of work by Benjamin Sebastian confronts their ancestral implication in violent structures of settler-colonialism, while holding space for a spiritually expansive understanding of our relationship to the world around us and the forces that shape it through multiple forms of coloniality. This exhibition reveals a visual language of stitch, pattern, symbolism and hybridity, developed to unravel complex personal and political histories.
‘Taut’ (Detail) - Photographed by Eda Sancakdar - 2024
Acknowledgements
Benjamin Sebastian was raised on the stolen lands of the Djabugay and Yidinji peoples and pays respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
This exhibition is made possible with National Lottery Project Grants funding from Arts Council England and will tour to Gallery 1853, Oldham (4th April – 2nd May 2025) and VSSL Studio, London (Summer 2025) with further venues to be announced.
Benjamin would like to sincerely thank Ash McNaughton, Mine Kaplangı, Matteo Cortés, Bean, Jane Scarth, Marco Berardi, Baiba Sprance, Anna Marsland, Justin Hunt, Molly Clark, Robyn Ellen, John Chandler, Ant The Elder and the creative teams at Tanks Arts Centre, Gallery 1853, VSSL Studio, Hebert Read Gallery, Cooke’s Framing, FUTURERITUAL and CT20 - without whose input, support and collaboration, this exhibition would not have been possible.
Related Media
➣ List of Works
➣ Extended exhibition text written by Jane Scarth
➣ Read Sebastian’s recent interview with ArtVerge HERE
Benjamin Sebastian was raised on the stolen lands of the Djabugay and Yidinji peoples and pays respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
This exhibition is made possible with National Lottery Project Grants funding from Arts Council England and will tour to Gallery 1853, Oldham (4th April – 2nd May 2025) and VSSL Studio, London (Summer 2025) with further venues to be announced.
Benjamin would like to sincerely thank Ash McNaughton, Mine Kaplangı, Matteo Cortés, Bean, Jane Scarth, Marco Berardi, Baiba Sprance, Anna Marsland, Justin Hunt, Molly Clark, Robyn Ellen, John Chandler, Ant The Elder and the creative teams at Tanks Arts Centre, Gallery 1853, VSSL Studio, Hebert Read Gallery, Cooke’s Framing, FUTURERITUAL and CT20 - without whose input, support and collaboration, this exhibition would not have been possible.
Related Media
➣ List of Works
➣ Extended exhibition text written by Jane Scarth
➣ Read Sebastian’s recent interview with ArtVerge HERE
