‘Faith Like a Rock’: Woody De Othello in conversation
with Ekow Eshun
“One of the main tenets that I’ve been trying to embody in the work is healing. How do I use the sculpture to not only learn and heal for myself, but how do these things then help other people heal?”
Arriving in London with ‘Faith Like a Rock’, his first solo UK exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, Woody De Othello (b.1991, Miami, USA) creates an immersive installation that expands upon earlier motifs and represents a bold evolution in his artistic cosmology. In this special film, join the artist in conversation with Ekow Eshun as they walk through the exhibition.
Inspired by the domestic objects, flora and fauna of his immediate surroundings, Othello recasts them as humanoid characters whose features are as recognisable as they are uncanny. Vessels sprout appendages such as ears and mouths, while exaggerated hands shield invisible eyes. They stand alone or huddled in groups, precariously stacked atop an array of entangled legs that bend, kneel, twist and fold. Occasionally a household curio appears: a hollowed-out mirror revealing the silhouette of a face, a hammer melting over a platinum-glazed steam iron, or a pair of chess pieces inflated to the size of a cat.
Installation view: ‘Woody De Othello: Faith Like a Rock’, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York. Photo by Mark Blower
The exhibition unfolds as a series of mise-en-scène with each room transformed into a unique environment. In one room, sculptures float on a trio of rafts made from shipping palettes. Kneeling figures inspired by the prostrate bodies seen across ancient religious statuary—from Djenné-Djeno’s famous seated figures to Egyptian depictions of pharaohs—are joined by a congregation of vessels aptly titled ‘the healers gathered around’ (2023). Atop this base of criss-crossed legs, several vessels are arranged, featuring rich blue, green, and grey elongated faces. Instead of facing the viewer, the figures huddle inward. A pair of falcons perch on another buttress of limbs, a reference to the Yoruba belief in a divine force connecting earth to the spirit world as well as the ancient Egyptian god Horus often depicted as a falcon-headed man.
Installation view: ‘Woody De Othello: Faith Like a Rock’, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2024). Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York. Photo by Mark Blower
In the following room, flaming red walls and deep crimson flooring set the stage for ‘Divine support’ (2024) and search for change (2024). One sculpture stands tall with four arms branching outward to the heavens as if summoning a gathering or prayer while the other crouches in contemplation. The tone shifts again to one of hushed reverence in the final room painted in teal. A procession of ceramic sculptures advances along a lengthy church bench. Along the walls, jewel-toned flowers and enchanted forests dance across canvas and paper, joined by a series of ink drawings depicting a tangle of trees, plants, bodies and birds.
Woody De Othello, ‘fantasy under the moonlight’, 2024. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 127cm (30 x 50in). Copyright Woody De Othello. Courtesy of the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and Karma, New York. Photo by Phillip Maisel
Integral to Othello’s practice is a deep engagement with clay and its connection to place and ancestry. Rejecting Western cultural beliefs in the hegemony of humans over nature, the artist turns to pre-colonial rituals and precepts that reassert the rights of nature. Clay becomes a conduit to the past and a path to healing. From the nkisi of Central Africa—animistic power objects imbued with sacred energy and used for spiritual protection—to the Indigenous Dagara cosmology of sub-Saharan Africa, Othello embraces the regenerative power of the material. As the artist recalls, “I remember having this overwhelming feeling that everything I needed to know about my past and future was beholden to clay.” In ‘Faith Like a Rock’, Othello performs visual alchemy. This once humble material becomes a potent cipher for radical, sustainable transformation.
Woody De Othello, 2023. Photo by Collette Wylie. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York
The artist, who was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and finds his work present in numerous museum collections including Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, lives and works in Oakland, California, where he spends a great deal of time outdoors. Hence the verdant tones seen across this body of work.
“For me, nature is a place that we could all go to heal,” Othello pinpoints. “In my personal life, nature’s one of the most restorative things that I can partake in on a weekly, daily basis.”
Woody De Othello: ‘Faith Like a Rock’ continues until 13 April 2024 at Stephen Friedman Gallery, 5-6 Cork Street, Mayfair