Grace Ndiritu Wins 2022 Film London Jarman Award

It has been announced that Grace Ndiritu is the winner of 2022’s Film London Jarman Award, beating out strong competition from contemporaries including Jamie Crewe, Onyeka Igwe, Morgan Quaintance, Rosa-Johan Uddoh and Alberta Whittle.

The award, which recognises and supports UK-based artist filmmakers (and takes its name from visionary artist Derek Jarman), is something of a barometer for the sector and maker of stars, providing a platform for past winners to consolidate their careers and push on. 2016 winner and current Turner Prize nominee, Heather Phillipson, is a case in point.

Across moving image, performance art, publishing and fashion, Ndiritu’s practice explores transformation and healing in the contemporary world. She has stated that her work is concerned with “what we have in common as human beings rather than what divides or makes us different.”

The jurors, including last year’s winner, Jasmina Cibic, said: “[they] were impressed by a body of work that spans books, films, installation and performance.” They noted in particular, “the complex and nuanced ways that issues such as mental health and the ramifications of climate change are interwoven into her two most recent films.”

Those works, the 2021 directorial debut Black Beauty, and this year’s Becoming Plant (see above) – which follows a dance troupe who participate in a therapeutic experiment with psychedelics – were, said the jury, “deftly directed with an innovative understanding of film form.”

Previously included in the British Art Show (2021), BFI London Film Festival and the 51st Venice Biennale, the British Kenyan artist has shown at galleries including Nottingham Contemporary, the ICA, and Liverpool’s Bluecoat, with 2019 exhibition The Ark.

Mike Pinnington

Images/media (from top): Grace Ndiritu, Black Beauty (2021), film still. Photo credit – Post-Hippie Productions; Portrait of Grace Ndiritu. Photo by Steve Smith; trailer for Becoming Plant (2022)

See more at the artist’s website