IONE & MANN presents “Hold Me Now”, a group exhibition curated by Huma Kabakci with artists
Shannon Bono, Yulia Iosilzon and Vanessa da Silva exploring the urgency of care-politics, healing and
togetherness. In a post-Covid and capitalist world where carelessness reigns, and humanity is missing,
we need embracing, touching and healing.
Over the past few decades, a majority of us have experienced living in a social system where we have
been encouraged and accustomed to feel and act as hyper-individualised, competitive subjects who
primarily look out for themselves. In reality, to thrive, we need caring communities where we can be
interdependent and conditions that enable us to act collaboratively to create communities where we
can nurture our interdependencies. In the context of care and the need for collectivity, the “holding” in
the exhibition title symbolises caring and nurturing relationships, and the urgency of physical touch and
love is emphasised with “now”. The act of “holding” often implies a sense of vulnerability or
dependence, highlighting interdependence and mutual vulnerability, emphasising the importance of
care, compassion, and empathy in shaping socio-political relationships and policies. How can we live in
the present in a society where there is no security, a sense of comfort or care? Has the notion of
touching and holding become a luxury?
Responding to the exhibition, the artists have created visual narratives that highlight the experiences
of those needing care and basic needs of a physical touch and affection. Whilst Bono’s practice
embodies an afrofemcentrist consciousness, sharing muted narratives and projecting the black
women’s lived experience through her lens, in her paintings, she focuses on embracing the self and
self-love. There are layers upon layers of paints, use of stencilling and recurring symbols in Bono’s
mystical paintings. Iosilzon however, often cites children’s illustration and theatre as sources of
inspiration, encouraging her lyrical works to be understood as scenes within a comic strip or through
storytelling. She repeats symbols and motifs throughout her paintings, sculptures, and installations,
building an iconographic arsenal to comment on social and political issues, in this case, to the urgency
of care and collectivity. The fluid forms of her wall ceramics interact and interdependently form
relationships with her paintings. By interweaving the individual with the political in her artistic practice,
da Silva investigates the different histories and cultures in developing her identity by blurring the
boundaries of gender, form, and the traditional understanding of an interaction with an artwork. From
her series of wearable sculptures initially made to fit in other parts of the body titled “Uombee,” she
invites the audience to interact with the works carefully, emphasising the inextricable link between body and movement. This connection between body and sculpture opens the artwork to another realm,
directly referencing Maurice Merleau-Ponty by emphasising how we first experience our world through
our bodies.
Integrating these different artistic approaches and thoughts, “Hold Me Now” aims to evoke a sense of
intimacy and connection. Using various media and layering, the exhibition explores the meaningful and
empathetic relationships between individuals and the challenges that societal boundaries may hinder
such relations.
Hold Me Now , 1st December 2023– 27th December 2024, IONE & MANN
About
Shannon Bono (b.1995, London) received her MA in Art & Science from Central Saint Martin’s University
and her Associate Fellowship in higher education from the University of the Arts London. Shannon’s
paintings embody an afrofemcentrist consciousness, sharing muted narratives and projecting the black
women’s lived experience through her own lens. She is invested in producing layered, figurative,
compositions embedded with symbolism that centralise black womanhood as a source of knowledge
and understanding. Enamoured by African spiritually, Christian iconography and renaissance art she
employs its purpose of cultural impact for an improved society within her works. Shannon explores the
internal body as well as the external, by merging the design of notable fabrics from Africa with biological
structures, chemical processes and more recently the unseen world displaying divination for the
foundations of her storytelling. Bono uses the anatomy as a second canvas in the foreground, she views
the body as a powerful signifier that provokes dialogue, playing with pose, gesture and the gaze to
challenge reality.
Yulia Iosilzon (b. 1992) lives and works in London. She holds an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College
of Art, London (2019) and a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2017). Yulia works
in painting and ceramics. Her figurative paintings on stretched transparent fabric are portals into vivid
dreamlike worlds with roots in both ancient mythologies and contemporary social concerns. Yulia’s
works hint at unfolding narratives of human-animal metamorphosis. Her visual references are wide
ranging; as well as exploring the Jewish iconography of her heritage, Yulia also draws on imagery from
childhood cartoons and representations of paradise. The works establish internal rhythms through the
inclusion of repeated details or iterative patterns such as waving hair or the undulating bodies of
snakes. Expressive human faces emerge from landscapes or peek through swathes of vegetation,
shifting through registers of emotional resonance as a tool for connecting with the viewer. Although on
the surface Yulia’s works have a cheery cartoonish appeal, they also often harbour a subtle air of
menace. With their smooth, gleaming surfaces, they offer reflections on humankind and express
concern over the products of our time such as over-consumption, over-pollution, and social instability.
From crisis to paradise, banal to profound, Yulia’s practice is concerned with the narratives we share
to make sense of the world around us.
Vanessa da Silva (b. 1976 São Paulo) has lived in London since the early 2000s. Her work explores
nationality, identity, migration and displacement, reflecting her own experiences as a Latin American
immigrant to the UK. Working across sculpture, textiles, installation and performance, da Silva’s
practice interrogates ideas of both cultural and transactional exchange, as well as notions of trade and
value. Interweaving the personal with the political, she investigates the amalgamation of different
histories and cultures in the development of her identity. Da Silva’s intuitive approach to composition
results in organic forms that make reference to the inner architecture of the body. Although abstract,
her work explores elements of figuration via the choreography of human behaviour, in particular the
way we travel through the world. Many of da Silva’s sculptures are interactive, emphasising the
inextricable link between body and movement.
Huma Kabakc? (b. London, 1990) is a Turkish-British curator and former founding director of Open
Space, living and working in London. Kabakc? worked at the Drawing Room as a Development Manager
between 2021-2022 and continues with fundraising and strategic advising working freelance. She
graduated with her BA in Advertising and Marketing at the London College of Communication and
completed her MA & MPhil degrees in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London.
Kabakci has worked at commercial galleries, biennials, museums and auction houses, both in the UK
and Turkey, in many different capacities. Kabakc? manages a private family art collection comprising
over 900 works of Turkish, Central Asian and European contemporary art. Open Space has collaborated
with institutions such as Block Universe Performance Festival, Delfina Foundation, Fiorucci Art Trust,
Flat Time House and IKSV (Istanbul Biennial Foundation).
Kabakc?’s curatorial interest lies in creating immersive experiences and a wider dialogue in
collaboration with multidisciplinary practitioners. Her key areas of interest and knowledge focus on
diaspora, gender & identity politics, food as a medium and hospitality.
IONE & MANN is a London-based contemporary art gallery established in 2015. Independent and female-owned, artist-focused and not driven by trends, the gallery is dedicated to thoughtfully curated exhibitions and championing early to mid-career artists. IONE & MANN favours a slower, more considered approach to presenting, experiencing and engaging with art and artists, one that allows for long term relationships and ongoing dialogues between gallery, collectors and artists. Founding Director: Alkistis Koukouliou
