Ada M. Patterson | The Whole World Is Turning

Ada M. Patterson works with masquerade, textiles, performance, video and poetry, telling new stories or rethinking old stories in new recuperative ways. The new multi-screen video installation ‘A Ship of Fools’ is a vessel for divergent voices, each trying to articulate their experiences of a difficult present.

As the impact of climate change touches bodies across the globe in different ways, how can we feel each other’s hurt, grieve each other’s losses, and speak to what is happening? What do we want from each other after sharing our experiences of crisis?

Translating this desire for kinship, empathy and connection into a collaborative way of working, ‘A Ship of Fools’ is created with Clementine Edwards, Nicole Jordan, Ark Ramsay and M. Maria Walhout. Music and kanga – a printed fabric that is gifted at an occasion of joy or grief – play key roles in this new work.

Ada M. Patterson (Bridgetown, 1994) is a visual artist and writer based between Barbados, London and Rotterdam. A 2019 resident of the Hamburger Community of Art, Rotterdam, they have exhibited with Live Art Development Agency, London; Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Bridgetown; Roodkapje, Rotterdam; Ateliers ’89, Oranjestad; Alice Yard, Port-of-Spain. Their writing has featured in ARC Magazine, Sugarcane Magazine, PREE, Mister Motley and Metropolis M.