Shenece Oretha

Using Poaceae (the grass family) as a botanical starting point, Shenece will experiment with envisaging new sculptural forms that will transform the exhibition space into an instrument in its own right. As these new hybrid forms activate the gallery sonically, the work will begin to draw out the otherwise untraceable knowledge that the grasses carry with them. 

This exhibition forms part of the wider spatio-poetic research that our Associate Curator Amrita is currently conducting. From innovative speaker systems and instruments made from organic matter to other playback technologies, she is interested in collaborating with artists who imagine their own ‘carriers’ of sound. 

 

About the Artist

Shenece Oretha (b. Montserrat) is a multidisciplinary artist currently listening from London. Their practice is invested in the mobilising potential of sound and the animation of Black agricultural and environmental legacies. Oretha’s works negotiate the physicality of sound and plants to sculpt a space for collectivity, poly-vocality and emphasise listening as an embodied practice. Converging installations, performance, text, print and sculpture to shape moments of ceremony and collective action.

Oretha’s solo shows include Tolled, The Hepworth Wakefield (2023), Ah So It Go, Ah No So It Go, Go So!, Cubitt Gallery (2022), Called to Respond, Cell Project Space (2020) and TESTING GROUNDS, Cafe OTO Project Space (2019). Group exhibitions include, 20/20 Futures, LCF (2025),  Brent Biennial, London (2022), SURVEY II, G39, Site Gallery and Jerwood Arts (2021), Cinders, Sinuous and Supple, Les Urbaines, Switzerland (2019) and PRAISE N PAY IT/ PULL UP, COME INTO THE RISE, South London Gallery, London, (2018).

Recent performances have been held at Tate Modern (2025), Café Oto London (2025) and London Contemporary music festival (2024). In 2024 Shenece was a UK associate at Delfina Foundation and in 2025 Shenece was an awardee of the third edition of the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award.