Centre at the Forks

Enjoy a conversation and Q&A with Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys guest curator, Qanita Lilla, and artists Jessica Karuhanga and Winsom Winsom. Together, they discuss the exhibition, its development and their works featured in the exhibition. 

Ukutula: Our Timeless Journeys centres on a display of sixteen extraordinarily diverse traditional West African masks. These masks, part of the Agnes’ Justin and Elisabeth Lang Collection, appear in chorus with the contemporary work of five Canadian artists from the African and Asian diasporas. A travelling exhibition developed by AGNES and hosted by Museum London, Ukutula runs from November 21, 2024, to May 11, 2025.

This public lecture is free and open to the public, registration is required. 


About the Speakers:

Dr Qanita Lilla is Associate Curator, Arts of Africa at Agnes Etherington Art Centre. At Agnes, Qanita cares for the Justin and Elisabeth Lang Collection of African Art and works with contemporary art practice from various diasporas to engage the African collection in the present.

Jessica Karuhanga is a first-generation Canadian artist of British-Ugandan heritage who addresses politics of identity and Black diasporic concerns through lens-based technologies, sculpture, writing, drawing, and performance. Karuhanga’s practice explores self-articulation, beauty, illness, isolation, and grief through intuitive approaches to drawing and performative movement, centring Black subjectivity and embodiment. 

Winsom Winsom is a Maroon Canadian artist with a prolific career spanning several decades. Born and trained as an artist in Jamaica, Winsom’s art often explores themes of spirituality and identity.  Her work is characterized by bold colours, dynamic brushstrokes and themes, and a sense of movement and energy.

Image courtesy of Angela Antonopoulos