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Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei-Garcia’s large-scale works on washi paper are installations are installations in their own right.

Reminiscent of political murals, her work is inspired by historical research and the unreliability of the narrator. Her interest in this disjunction is inspired by the mestiza experience. The sense of never being aligned, being confronted with an unauthorised fictional self, and those conflicting moments of an existence “in-between“ reflects the reality of being mestiza. She works to enact a form of M.Lugone’s “world-travelling” to overcome forms of arrogant perception that produce ignorance about others.

“By integrating psychological, literary and historical analysis, Onwochei-Garcia’s works challenge accepted truths – picking and prodding at perceived definitives – by using multiple layers of paint to blend fables and falsehoods.

The immersive paintings, which are often installed like curved, enclosing walls, emphasise the unsettling connection between spectator, painting and subject. By unconventionally turning paintings into structures, that refuse to display themselves and frustrate the looking process as you have to twist, turn and rotate to see them, she upsets the privilege of spectating.

Stepping into the space of the washi paper walls, viewers are asked to consider how their histories interfere with and charge their relationships with other people. The arrangement of the walls simulates a psychological landscape, reflecting the idea that the dynamics between people are often as much subject to being shaped by the imaginary, as they are the real.” - Will Jarvis, Gertrude