Residency Unlimited

Mimi Cherono Ng’ok

Mimi Cherono Ng'ok, Untitled, 2015, archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Luster, edition of 6
Artist Name: Mimi Cherono Ng’ok
Residency Dates: August – September
Born: 1983
Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya
Lives & Works: Nairobi, Kenya
URL: http://www.tiwani.co.uk/exhibitions/exhibition-mimi-cherono-ngok-everyone-is-lonely-in-kigali/Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts – Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Bio / Statement:

The prominent themes I tend to explore in my photographs are space, people, and memories—considering how these things intertwine and impact me. My journey is one in which I discover the intimacy of places, the nostalgia of cities, and the streets remembered throughout heartbreak. I found that I seem to have a near obsession with trees, the tropics, and horses. It is through these fragments that I construct a story of myself.

My work now consists of collecting memory, of the places I encounter, documenting the familiar, the everyday, and the mundane. The encounters are always different, almost like new lovers. I bookmark geographical locations with landmarks of affect: I was here when my friend passed away, this is where I have a home: a family. This is the place I longed to be and couldn’t stay. The photographs are not about one country, one city or one place, but are an emotional cartography of where I have been. It is a series of vignettes on travel, loss, memory and the impossibility of getting there when you need to the most. The photographs record different places—they are a reflection of my life. Nairobi is where I grew up and I return to each time, primarily for my family.

Mimi  Cherono  Ng’ok  was  born  in  Nairobi,  Kenya  in  1983.  She  studied  Photography  at  the University of  Cape  Town, graduating in  2006.  She is  currently  based  in Nairobi,  Kenya.  Her experiences growing up between Kenya and South Africa have engendered an intimate body of work centred on issues of home, displacement, loss and identity.  She has presented solo exhibitions in Denmark, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa. Recent group  exhibitions  include:  Dakar  Biennale  international  exhibition  (2016  and  2014); Rencontres  de  Bamako  (2015);  Tiwani  Contemporary,  London  (2015);  Fondation  Donwahi, Abidjan (2015); National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi (2013) and Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2011). She has undertaken residencies in Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, Brazil, Ghana and Germany and won 1st place in the PhotoAfrica Award in Tarifa, Spain in 2010. Currently she is a Magnum Foundation grantee and a recipient of the 2017 Photo London Art Proof Award.

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