PRESENTATION: Ima Abasi Okon

Central to Ima-Abasi Okon’s practice as a visual artist is a preoccupation with knowledge and its production. Working across print, sculpture and moving image, she works with everyday objects and systems, often removing their function to raise questions about value, productivity and excess, to produce multilayered installations that draw upon a wide range of subjects.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Van Abbemuseum Archive

Ima-Abasi Okon’s in her solo exhibition “Incorporeal hereditaments like Love [can] Set(s) You Free, according to Kelly, Case, Dru Hill, Kandice, LovHer, Montel and Playa with 50 – 60g of –D,)e,l,a,y,e,d1;—O,)n,s,e,t2;— ;[heart];M,)u,s,c,l,e3;[heart];—S,)o,r,e,n,e,s,s4;”, Ima-Abasi Okon presents a collection of old and new work in as many as 10 rooms of the historic section of the Van Abbemuseum building. The exhibition raises questions about how ideas of improvement, used to justify the appropriation of land in settler colonialism, are still seen in today’s focus on optimising the body.Okon draws on elements from road running in this exhibition. For instance, rubber mats typically used in races are incorporated into the installation. Conventionally placed at the start and finish lines to register an individual’s run time, these mats have been repurposed in the Van Abbemuseum to function differently. Here, the start and finish mats are positioned close together, alternately activating and deactivating a timer as visitors move through the galleries. Importantly, the time recorded is no longer tied to individual performance but is instead measured collectively. As more visitors enter the exhibition, the clock resets more frequently. This continuously interrupted, shared time is displayed live on a digital clock, where it becomes clear that time is not allowed to accumulate. With the active participation of its audience, Okon’s circuit slows down a system typically associated with speed, proficiency, and competition. Instead, the focus shifts to collective movement and alternative forms of validation, challenging conventional systems of power and approval.

Image by Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn

Info: Curator: Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Assistant curator and production: Chala Itai Westerman, Van Abbemuseum , Stratumsedijk 2 , Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Duration: 10/5-21/9/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-17:00, https://vanabbemuseum.nl/