Nolan Oswald Dennis is a para-disciplinary artist.
2023 Biennial Year Find out more
Their practice explores ‘a black consciousness of space’ – the material and metaphysical conditions of decolonization – questioning histories of space and time through system-specific, rather than site-specific interventions.
They hold a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a Science Master’s degree in Art, Culture and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their work has been featured in exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg, Cape Town, London), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), MACBA (Barcelona), AutoItaliaSouthEast (London), CAN (Neuchatel), the Young Congo Biennale (Kinshasa) among others. They are a founding member of artist group NTU and Index Literacy Program (ILP), as well as a research associate at the VIAD research centre at the University of Johannesburg.
Liverpool Biennial 2023
‘No conciliation is possible (working diagram)’ (2018 - ongoing)
Nolan Oswald Dennis is concerned with ‘a Black consciousness of space’ and the hidden structures that determine the limits of our social and political imagination. This work is part of a series of site-specific installations consisting of map-like wall diagrams and a shifting selection of drawings and objects that expand the diagrams’ contents.
The installation explores the impossibility or possibility of finding common ground between the world we currently have and the world(s) we need. It maps provisional and imagined connections that emerge from the long and unresolved process of decolonisation. In particular, the work examines colonial compensation conciliation throughout history, in this present moment, and into the future. The artist refers to this status as ‘pastpresentfuture’.
Through their research, Dennis deliberates
Nolan Oswald Dennis is concerned with ‘a Black consciousness of space’ and the hidden structures that determine the limits of our social and political imagination. This work is part of a series of site-specific installations consisting of map-like wall diagrams and a shifting selection of drawings and objects that expand the diagrams’ contents. The installation explores the impossibility or possibility of finding common ground between the world we currently have and the world(s) we need. It maps provisional and imagined connections that emerge from the long and unresolved process of decolonisation. In particular, the work examines colonial compensation conciliation throughout history, in this present moment, and into the future. The artist refers to this status as ‘pastpresentfuture’. Through their research, Dennis deliberates on the implications of ‘postness’ (as in ‘post-colonial’ and ‘post-apartheid’). They deconstruct and examine the consequences of these terms, which refer to the past, implying that society has moved beyond the violence of these conditions. In place of this, the work offers ways of seeing the past, present and future as deeply entangled and an irresolvable part of now.
‘No conciliation is possible (working diagram)’ (2018 - ongoing)
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Nolan Oswald Dennis, No conciliation is possible (working diagram) (2018-ongoing). Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
