Nnena Kalu, a visual artist originally from Wandsworth, is one of four artists nominated this year for the prestigious Turner Prize, breaking new barriers for the learning-disabled community.
Nnena Kalu has been developing her artistic practice with Action Space since 1999.
We spoke to Charlotte Hollinshead, the Head of Artist Development at the organisation, who has been working with Nena for 26 years.
On their long working relationship Charlotte says: “It’s been amazing to see her work develop over all these years and seeing the pleasure she gets from having her work celebrated. We’ve all been on a very long journey together and we have all changed a lot over that time.”
To see Nnena’s work celebrated is incredible for Charlotte, who explains that she is the first learning-disabled and autistic artist to be nominated for this award.
Charlotte said: “It means a lot not just for Nnena but for the learning-disabled community and not just within Action Space but across the UK it is really massive. The art world is very reliant on artists coming up with high concepts that then give the work a specific narrative.So people are now very used to going into art galleries and having to read a lot of stuff relating to an artists practice to help them understand it. Nnena offers something completely different because Nnena is not able to provide a narrative for her practice, and we don’t talk about that narrative because we don’t know what she is thinking - she’s not able to verbalise that.”
Action Space was founded in the 1960s and has been focused on working with the learning-disabled community since the 1970s. They now have over 70 artists working at 3 different studios across London.
Action Space’s South London studio, where Nnena has been based since its inception 26 years ago, is a creative home to many artists, some of whom have been making work there for 20 years. It has worked with a long list of Wandsworth residents over the years, with long-term support from Wandsworth Council.
Charlotte says: “It’s been pretty important because we have had that consistency it’s meant that we’ve really been able to support our artists to develop their practice. That long term support is crucial, the only way you can really support someone to develop serious professional practice is through a long-term commitment. Without Wandsworth Council Nnena would not be nominated for a Turner Prize.”
“When Nnena first started on this path we were having to persuade people that Nnena was an artist. They wanted to give her the label of being a “student” or a “participant” and not valuing what she was doing and giving her the respect that she deserves.We know this is going to have a ripple effect both in the art world and in the learning-disabled community. Nnena and our other artists have experienced a huge amount of discrimination and prejudice. So Nnena kind of blows all that out of the water really. We have the next generation coming up through Action Space and already we are finding it’s much quicker for things to happen for them.”
The Turner Prize exhibition is being held in Bradford as part of their year as the UK City of Culture.
