Anticipate, sublimate

Anticipate, sublimate brings together the work of artists and friends Alexis Kyle Mitchell and Ima-Abasi Okon for the first time. Presenting their moving image and sculptural installations in parallel, this two-person exhibition curated by Mason Leaver-Yap considers acts of preservation and rituals for personal and collective sustenance. Anticipate, sublimate prepares for uncertain futures and imagines transformative ways of living through and with one another.

Co-commissioned by Glasgow International for its exhibition premiere, Alexis’s The Treasury of Human Inheritance 2024, is an hour-long film about the experience of living with and alongside disease and disability. Tracing patterns across the biological, physical and spiritual realms, The Treasury combines documentation of Glasgow’s abandoned urban architectures teeming with natural growth; celluloid film hand-processed in genetic material; somatic and religious rituals for death and life after death; family home movie footage; and an analogue synthesiser soundtrack made through a collaboration with Luke Fowler and Richy Carey that mimics inheritance patterns of genetic disease.

Ima-Abasi responds to Alexis' film by revisiting her installation: 120 minutes congregants’ politic of sermonary configurations, 10 x 90 sec of/on murmurings, 15 mile progression _of agency _of l ife _of free-from _of lavender _of metabolic capacity _{of, of, of, of, of of of of} the feeling that it is suddenly and inexplicably very easy ^{at least for a while}, _{of of, of, of, of, payout} community sustenance ^of ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, _of heart rate, _of elevation gain of ^{no on} The Mountain Top! Of E-eee-lapsed time _{of of, of, of, of,} ^elevation loss _of distance _of Hibiscus&Ginger _of love _{of of of of} inactive glutes ^of _{zoning/redlining} of elecampane, on, on, on, on, on,,,,,,,,, c_a_d_e_n_c_e _{on on on}/^{off off off} Est. <a G-I-F-T>, (2022). This sculptural work comprises a locally manufactured and preserved ox-tail stew, displayed alongside certificates that verify the organic material is fit for human consumption. Ima-Abasi’s work explores the interactions between metabolic and linguistic effects on materials, bodies, and procedures. The work highlights relationships with time, forms of individual and collective nourishment, and how institutional structures seek to administrate paths towards the sharing and ingestion of knowledge.