GALLERY 1
AGIMAT – SADIA PINEDA HAMEED
31 MAY -16 AUGUST
Agimat is a solo exhibition by Sadia Pineda Hameed that explores the history of colonial and folk charms.
Through a collection of objects, sculptures, and video, Sadia considers the histories of alternative value, tokens, and anting-anting (the Filipino belief in amulets and talismans). This explores how a token can simultaneously inhabit and memorialise; gesture protest against; and protect from extraction and land violence.
SATURDAY 31 MAY
LIVESTREAM, ALL DAY
While we are celebrating the opening of Agimat, artist Mort Drew from Soundcamp, an art collective working with transmission ecologies, is livestreaming from Sadia’s parallel exhibition Signals at Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum.
Listen live here.
Sadia has worked with Llantarnam Grange and Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum over the past year, researching elements of the collection to considers how radical movements of the past exist in international solidarity with movements today.
Agimat brings different collections of charms together, from a selection originally collected, and displaced, by Edward Lovett (1852 – 1933) a folklorist from Croydon, to a new series of sculptural amulets that draw on lucid dreaming, collective action, and protection against extraction.
Agimat is on display alongside MMMM NOTE, a collaborative artwork by Kerstin Kartscher and Sadia Pineda Hameed in our Billboard Gallery. Drawing on Welsh socialist Robert Owen’s 19th-century labour vouchers, this work creates a playful counterfeit, deconstructing value as imagined rather than issued.
Items from the Robert Owens Museum which inspired this work will also be on display as part of Agimat.
Agimat is part of Perspective(s), a collaboration between Arts Council Wales and National Museum Wales, supported by the Welsh Government.
EXHIBITION OPENING + ACTIVITIES
On Saturday 31 May, Agimat will be opening at Llantarnam Grange, in parallel with Signals a new body of film, sound, and sculptural work displayed throughout Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum.
To celebrate both exhibitions, we are running talks, tours, and activities across both sites, include a free coach from Llantarnam Grange to Big Pit.
LLANTARNAM GRANGE
11am Artist Talk: Sadia Pineda Hameed
12-2pm Opening Event
2pm Coach to Big Pit
BIG PIT NATIONAL COAL MINING MUSEUM
2.30pm Signals: Tour with Sadia
3pm Opening Event
4pm Coach to Llantarnam Grange
Find out more here and book a free place on the coach to Big Pit. Places are limited and pre-booking is essential.
Agimat will be on display at Llantarnam Grange until 16 August.
Signals will be on display at Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum until 31 August.
ABOUT PERSPECTIVE(S)
Whose voices are heard in museums, whose histories are told, and how does exploring the past shape the future of anti-racism? These are the critical questions that seven ethnically and culturally diverse artists are tackling through Perspective(s), a bold arts programme in which the artists are retelling and reimagining the stories of Welsh objects and history, offering fresh perspectives that challenge preconceptions and bring marginalised narratives to the fore.
A collaboration with Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, Perspective(s) forms part of Wales’s Anti-Racist Action Plan, with support from the Welsh Government.
Find out more here.
