Stacey Gillian Abe: Garden of Blue Whispers — A Journey in the Sensory Garden of Memory
In defiance of London’s winter chill, the heart of Mayfair at Hanover Square is currently hosting a multi-layered “garden” that stretches from Uganda’s dusty winds to the scent of fresh rain. This week on Apartment No: 26’s art route, there’s Stacey Gillian Abe, who uses needle and thread like a memory-recording device to stitch the past into the present.
Stacey Gillian Abe’s new exhibition at Unit London takes the personal and societal memory interrogation familiar from her previous works a step further. “Garden of Blue Whispers” is not merely a visual experience; it is a poetic exploration of how touch, sound, smell, and sight can keep memories alive even after a season has passed.
A Geography on the Threshold of Seasons
The exhibition draws from the unique atmosphere of the dry seasons Abe spent in her village in Uganda. The moment when the scorching hot winds of the West Nile region, carrying dust, give way to the first gentle rains is reflected on the canvas. The sound of cicadas heralding rain and the awakening of soil meeting water materialize in Abe’s works.
A Heritage Woven with Stitching: The Maternal Line
One of the most striking layers of the exhibition is the hand-embroidered needlework on canvas. For Abe, embroidery is not just a technique; it is a “female line” heritage passed from her mother, who learned it from her own mother. By working silk threads directly onto the canvas, the artist transforms a domestic and traditional ritual into a meditative dialogue on the Black woman’s body. Through this process, the canvas becomes an imaginary refuge where figures can exist freely, independent of the world’s constraints.
Indigo: The Color of Freedom
Indigo, the defining color in Abe’s palette, takes center stage in this exhibition as well. Historically a color that defined the Black body through forced labor and trade, it is redefined in Abe’s hands. According to the artist, this blue tone represents a “new kind of Blackness” that transcends social and historical boundaries. Here, indigo serves both as a root connecting the figures to the earth and as a sky allowing them to flourish beyond those roots.
“Garden of Blue Whispers is like a love letter the artist wrote to her late grandmother; a tribute to an invitation that can no longer be accepted, to scents and sounds suspended in memory.”
Abe’s works stand at the boundary where earth, fabric, and pigment unite in a silent ritual of renewal. In London’s gray winter days, you have until the end of January to listen to these “blue whispers.”
