Ciara Ennis

This well-designed publication features new photographs by London-based artist Bettina von Zwehl (b.1971 in Munich). Following her graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1999, von Zwehl has completed high-profile residencies and had solo exhibitions at museums around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Freud Museum, Holburne Museum, and the New York Historical Society Museum. During a residency in Oxford, von Zwehl researched the Ashmolean’s founding collections and the many narratives embedded within the historical objects. This served as inspiration for a unique Wunderkammer book and exhibition that seamlessly transition between still-life, portraiture, monumental and miniature elements, as well as non-art objects and specimens from natural history collections. The artist's aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and unique practices, expanding the boundaries of the photographic medium.

Sadie Barnette’s celebratory installations explore collective and familial histories in glittering, speculative spaces Oakland-based multimedia artist Sadie Barnette (born 1984) has made groundbreaking explorations of her own family’s history and archives. She situates her father Rodney Barnette’s activism, including his founding of the Black Panther chapter in Compton, CA, and his surveillance by the FBI, in the social history of California and global histories of resistance against racial injustice. Through government documents, photography, writing, installation and her signature use of hot pink, Barnette transforms the bond between father and daughter into an art that speaks to the power of community action. This volume features several new works created for the exhibition, as well as a reproduction of the zine Barnette created as a tribute to her father’s New Eagle Creek Saloon, the first Black-owned gay bar in San Francisco.