ULI WILL GO TO HEAVEN | GRACE BROWNE

Tuesday 25 February 2025 | Swedenborg House, London WC1A 2TH

Display open 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. No booking required, just turn up.

Earth pigments painting workshop 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. Free, but please book via Eventbrite.

A pop-up display and workshop as part of our Influxus programme.

A display by Nigerian-British artist Grace Browne, featuring artworks created through meditations at Woodlands Methodist Church (the former home of a Glaswegian congregation of the General Conference of the New Church between 1908 and 1979). The artworks were inspired by a song of Uli classicists, ‘Omenani y’eje en’igwe’ (tradition will go to heaven). Once a symbol of disconnection, the church became a space for healing and re-membering Grace’s Nigerian foremothers’ arts.

Uli Will Go To Heaven explores the body and wall art traditions that Grace’s foremothers practised, called inale (Idoma body art) and Uli (ancient Igbo wall and body art)–beautiful art forms that were discouraged by Christian missionaries during colonial times. The display features wooden plates decorated with symbols inspired by these arts using earth pigments. The work was influenced by the time Grace spent meditating in the former Swedenborgian church at Woodlands Road, Glasgow.

In the painting workshop, participants will use London earth pigments collected by Grace. Paper and brushes will be provided. The workshop will be of a relaxed (rather than ‘class’) format with participants able to come and go as they wish. All ages welcome.

Grace Browne, Dancing on the lines.

GRACE BROWNE is a creatrix of joy working across visual arts, film, and community engagement. Her research-led practice centres her Nigerian foremothers’ arts. She uses natural materials to tell stories of re-membering relationships with ancestry, nature, and the body. Browne also produces and hosts the African Women’s Art Podcast.