Kiah M. Sandler in Conversation with Artist Betty Ogundipe
Betty Ogundipe is a multidisciplinary artist based in London, working across painting, photography, textile, installation, and moving image. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, UAL and the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL. She is also a two-time Tate Collective billboard competition winner (2020 and 2023). Her debut solo exhibition is opening at Tache Gallery in London and will be available to view from September 18th-October 23rd. Tache is a new contemporary art gallery in London’s Fitzrovia dedicated to nurturing, supporting and showcasing emerging artists, and dismantling the barriers that many artists face in their early-career development.
Artist portrait courtesy of Tache Gallery.
KS: ‘LOVE/FIGHT’ is your debut solo exhibition at Tache, and you’ve referred to it as a ‘manifesto’ of what your work embodies. What is the ideal impression you are hoping to have on viewers who may be engaging with your work for the first time?
BO: I want the work to express something honest and real. I hope that when people see the pieces, they recognise my honesty, and that it goes beyond what the artwork visibly shows. Every painting or creation I make stands for something deeper. When I call this show a ‘manifesto’, I mean that it’s a concise statement of the concerns that connect all parts of my practice: discipline, care, love, and resilience.
KS: Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term ‘Intersectionality’ to uniquely express the combination of biases Black women encounter worldwide. In this exhibition regarding Black Womanhood, is there anything specific you want viewers to reflect on? Is there any particular emotion you are looking to directly prompt?
BO: If there’s one feeling I’d like to spark, it’s recognition: either feeling seen or seeing something familiar in a new way. Women, in general, have often been expected to be both nurturing and strong, yet remain unseen. I’m exploring that through my own experiences, and I invite viewers to reflect on theirs too.
Betty Ogundipe, Untitled, 2022. Photo courtesy of Tache Gallery.
KS: What is the conceptual distinction between the emotions that fuel ‘Love’ and ‘Fight’ for you, if any?
BO: I believe one fuels the other in some ways. Love is what we’re fighting for, and to be loved is to be truly seen. They are inextricable: if you love someone, you’ll fight for them; if you fight with someone, it’s usually to protect something you love. I think we tend to overcomplicate this. Simply put, love is worth fighting for, and that fight is also a celebration of love.
KS: Your practice is multi-disciplinary, and this exhibition curates a multi-sensory experience for attendees. Is there any correlation for you in utilizing multiple mediums to address multiple components of the human experience?
BO: Some ideas need to be felt, seen, or heard—sometimes all at once. I’m drawn to the physicality and labour that go into making something, and to conversations around ‘feminine labour.’ Working across multiple mediums lets me spend more time with my subject matter, to question it, to reconsider it, and to be honest about my relationship with it.
KS: You’re no stranger to the London art scene–both as a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art and University of Saint Martins, and as two-time winner of the Tate Collective billboard competition. Is there any other city or part of the world you would like to connect with down the line on your artistic career?
BO: There are so many. Brazil is high on my list. I love the outdoors, and placing myself within new, diverse cultures produces the experiences that inspire me and my work. Mexico, Portugal, Japan. Right now, I’d like to connect to an artistic culture someplace with a diasporic history, and where womanhood has a natural connection to the land.
Betty Ogundipe, Pair of Hands, Prayer of Hands, 2024. Photo Courtesy of Tache Gallery.
KS: If you could go back in time to have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be and why?
BO: This is such a hard question, there are so many. I wanted to say Nina Simone, then I thought about Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, and finally Malcolm X, or Muhammad Ali.
KS: Who is an artist you believe everyone should have in their collection and why?
BO: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a truly powerful artist and a great force of creativity. Every painting of hers captures the mystery, vitality, and duality of the human experience with remarkable beauty.
KS: Who, if any one person, would you attribute as your greatest inspiration? Why?
BO: I’ve never thought of one single person as my greatest inspiration. Faith Ringgold and Marlene Dumas, however, were the artists whose work first helped me make sense of my own practice. In my own life, I’d say any of the maternal figures who shaped my upbringing, as I grew up surrounded by many women.
Many thanks to Betty Ogundipe, Tache Gallery and Pelham Communications on behalf of MADE IN BED.
You can find more about Betty Ogundipe’s career and work on Instagram.
Kiah M. Sandler,
Interviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED