Material Archive: ValUE
This is a publically contributed event and not a council event. If you would like, you can submit your own event and have it appear on our website (subject to review).

Valerie Ebuwa: ValUE. Credit: Henry Gorse
Summary
An exhibition from Valerie Ebuwa challenging racism and ideas of ‘conventional’ beauty. This multimedia exhibition offers different perspectives on the black female image, which has largely been objectified, exotified and excluded from art history.
Event Details
Address:Siobhan Davies Studios
85 St.George's Rd
London
Post code:SE16ER
Tickets:FREE
Telephone:02070919650
Email: contact@siobhandavies.com
Open hours:Daytime Drop-in
ValUE is open for drop-in visits 10am – 6pm, Monday – Friday.
Thursday Evening Visits
ValUE can be visited on Thursday evenings until 9.30pm by booking ahead.
Description
An exhibition from Valerie Ebuwa as part of Artist Archive.ValUE is a multi-layered project that challenges racism and ideas of ‘conventional’ beauty head on. The name comes from artist Valerie Uchechukwu Ebuwa’s initials, and also stands for the quality of the project’s content, in which she works to decode racial oppression through dance and visual art. Ebuwa’s work illustrates how the modern inability to contextualise black bodies in contemporary spaces repeatedly occurred throughout history, and offers a better perspective on old contexts. It asks us to hold a higher regard for the black female.
Ebuwa incorporates her own body in order to offer different perspectives on the black female image, which has largely been objectified, exotified and excluded from art history. This use of her body serves as a contribution to the demolition of contemporary hierarchy, patriarchy and racism, giving an all-round archetypal makeover by reversing subject-object interrelations between artist and model. Through illustrations, paintings, photographs and films in collaboration with other artists, ValUE exposes their perceptions and artistic interpretation of Ebuwa’s body and challenges the notion of ‘unfamiliarity’ of this subject.
This work explores the reclamation and ownership of primitivism, by allowing black women to curate and own their narratives – rather than settling on perceived notions and stereotypes of what the black female body is.
Transport
By Bus:By bus: All to Elephant & Castle: 12, 53, 148, 344, 360, 453 or C10 to Imperial War Museum
By Tube:Nearest tube: Elephant & Castle, London South Bank University exit.
Follow directions to the Imperial War Museum.
By Train:We are also walking distance from Lambeth North and Waterloo stations.
Map
Accessibility
Access for wheelchair users
Adapted toilet
Assistance dogs welcome
Disability awareness training received
Level access toilet
Positive about disabled people
Seat available
Siobhan Davies Studios is mostly accessible to wheelchair users, with lifts to all floors. There are two accessible parking spaces available on site which can be booked in advance. Blue Badge parking is also available nearby on West Square and Garden Row (for a full map visit the Southwark Council website). Our main door is not power assisted. Amenities include: Changing facilities* Communal showers* Toilets / wheelchair accessible toilets on the ground floor and first floor Kitchen: tea and coffee making, fridge, dishwasher and a not fully accessible microwave * Our changing facilities and showers are not fully accessible. Our closest publicly available and fully accessible changing facility is at The Castle Centre, a leisure centre 0.3 miles away from the studios. You can find full details of their features here. If you would like to talk about your access requirements in advance of visiting please call us on 0207 091 9650.