Introduction to swell of spæc(i)es

Josèfa Ntjam’s artistic practice forges new myths and science fiction narratives that carry forward African and Afro-diasporic oral histories, knowledge systems and resistance movements. She fuses these stories with micro and macro-scale observations of the universe, from the resilience of tiny organisms to dark matter, forming speculative worlds rife with new alliances. Vivid, poetic and intricately layered, her works span moving image, photomontage, sculpture, text and performance. They embody a sense of perpetual movement, surging currents in which histories and environments, mythology and biology, pasts and futures entangle.

Ntjam’s installation swell of spæc(i)es is an otherworldly environment animated by the cosmic landscapes of a cyclical film and the interplay of sound, voice and vibration diffused from marine-like sculptures. It unfolds a “futuristic ancestrality” — a new creation story shaped by ancient and emergent ways of conceiving the world(s). The project evolved from Ntjam’s research into connections between the ocean and outer space appearing in many myths, and the parallel ways in which these sites hold stories of colonial domination and extraction, as well as emancipation and resistance.

“swell of spæc(i)es is an alchemical process in perpetual agitation, the alloying of ancestral geneses with new image creation technologies.”

— Josèfa Ntjam

It is also grounded in physical connections between these realms, such as the moon’s gravitational pull in creating the tides and tidal currents; another is the potential link proposed by the recent identification of limestone — a type of rock primarily formed of the skeletons of plankton and other marine organisms — in the debris of a former planet orbiting a white dwarf. Ntjam keyed in on plankton, an organism defined by its migration on currents, as a point of convergence between plant and animal, sea and stone, Earth and space. In swell of spæc(i)es, plankton morphs between the life phases and characteristics of the many species it encompasses: forming stars through a chemical process called bioluminescence, creating shields of mucus and hardening into shells, fossils and limestone. It is a force of transformation and carrier of memory, drawing creation stories from numerous origins into a constellation with histories of liberation.

Ntjam’s amalgamation of disparate stories maps affinities between the perspectives and projections, conditions and adaptations of different cultures and species. She centres possibilities for relation outside of imposed ideas about origin and identity. Her worldbuilding is resolutely alter-futurist. This concept, conceived by Mawena Yehouessi, reclaims the abundance of prospective imaginaries beyond the gaze of Western historical developments, desires and categorisations. Ntjam looks to myth as a powerful way of shaping this futurity. She conceived swell of spæc(i)es as a “nonorigin of species,” an inversion of the systems of classification and hierarchy wielded as mechanisms of power. In its rejection of a single origin, it is also a rejection of linear history. Plankton hardens into and emerges out of limestone; a snake eats its tail. It contends with a universe in continual expansion, a creation story without end.

To give form to this cosmos, Ntjam used artificial intelligence (AI) image generation to visually synthesise the vast range of connections she draws. Like myths, this technology is iterative: it generates endless versions from the same core elements. It served as a starting point for the hybrid characters and environments animating the film, but also as a tool for keeping Ntjam’s own universe in expansion through audience participation. Voice, sound and frequency further bend and amplify its reverberations. Shifting between speculative, poetic and mythical registers, Ntjam’s "swell" of species, spaces and stories opens an expansive space to imagine new resonances.

“What is a myth? A story that is told to many and that metamorphoses according to each other’s contributions and blind spots. Yet a story so vast and malleable, at the same time blazing and loose, that we can project ourselves, inhabit and haunt it together, anarchically.”

— Mawena Yehouessi

Poem by Mawena Yehouessi

One's only hope, in a time of decay, is to become
a snake. Not to take on trust or understand it
somehow but to become a snake.
An all-encompassing experience of flight,
or a jug as Fred Moten speaks about blackness.

For the cycle thing is everything and beyond
anything that shapeshifts to be part of the worlds:
Nahash is a djinn like our Aqueous Mother is the
sin of such knowledge you cannot know; unless
you agree to lose skin and (get) involve(d) as a
remnant, in turn.

Yes, they are worlds.

Like the frolic vibration of a [decolonial] matter of
quarks that are drifting; drafting anew whatever
would resonate and expand. Jamming.

— Mawena Yehouessi

Cyclical Film

Blending 3D animation with footage from aquariums, Ntjam creates a circular narrative of transformation and resurgence. The film’s mythology is based on two creation stories: the Dogon myth of Amma, a deity who created the stars by launching pellets of earth into the sky, and Nommo, twin water spirits; and a Huaorani tale about a snake that eats the stars to make the first vegetation, waterways and marine life. In Ntjam’s version, Amma casts limestone into space, breaking the rock into asteroids and luminous plankton stars that emit light through a chemical process known as bioluminescence. The stars are devoured by an astral snake, and harden into fossils in its belly. From the snake’s mouth emerges a fossil planet, where Nommo create the planet’s marine life, including an octopus that transforms into Amma, beginning the narrative anew.

The film is displayed on a curved LED wall and features a rich soundscape by composer Fatima Al Qadiri. Each character represents a blend of different species and memories, and has been synthesised using AI and other digital tools. Sources include 3D models of marine life, scans of Amma and Nommo statues held in Western collections, and photographs of significant figures within decolonial independence movements, such as Djouka Elisabeth, who played a decisive role in the liberation of Cameroon. These avatars and figures appear across Ntjam’s work, often collaged in caves, water bubbles, membranes and celestial objects as a form of living testimony. This approach is influenced by Drexciya, an electronic music duo whose mythology tells of an underwater population born out of the wrecks of the Atlantic human trade, and composer Sun Ra, who envisioned Saturn as a host planet for Afro-diasporic people.

“In this dis-continuous world, space and oceans come together to create what we might call heterotopia, a mole fraction that reveals memories and futuristic ancestrality.”

— Josèfa Ntjam

Sonic Sculptures

Within the swell of spæc(i)es environment, radiant, marine-like sculptures are agents of sonic transmission and reception, creating a dynamic play of rhythms, voices and resonances. Ntjam approaches sound, frequencies and vibration as a means of opening speculative and spectral connections between past and future. Orality is equally significant as the form through which myths and histories have spread and evolved over the course of centuries. Two jellyfish-shaped sound showers are suspended in the installation. A voice emerges from a central pearl contained within each sculpture, transmitting poetic and prophetic passages. The narration illuminates the stories of the characters and myths seen in the film, weaving together numerous perspectives on the interconnectedness of life and the cosmos. Ntjam’s jellyfish sculptures are made from innovative materials including resin sourced from sunflower seed oil. Their form is based on a floating robotic jellyfish appearing in the opening scene of Sun Ra and John Coney’s 1974 film Space Is the Place.

A vibrant, membrane-like layer emerges from the ground, resembling a large alien egg or embryo. Membranes are a motif in Ntjam’s work, often seen cradling images of revolutionary figures. They evoke the watery language of Drexciya, and insist on the preservation of these memories. Ntjam refers to them as an archive, one that will continue to live in our surroundings, adapt and transform into new life. The membrane in the installation is constructed from resin, a medium used to preserve organic matter. Its outer surface is equipped with small devices called sound exciters, which translate acoustic frequencies into vibration. These enable the membrane’s exterior to function as a type of speaker, responding to the interplay of voices and music diffused in the space. Its interior cavity offers a space to rest and inhabit the emergent world Ntjam has forged.

“And if the world were born from our aqueous ashes. Intertropical cosmogony of non-temporalities//I'm against// A heap of volcanoes sedimented in a black ocean that gave back to space a few stars of the sea”

— Josèfa Ntjam

Satellite Space

In developing swell of spæc(i)es, Ntjam held exchanges with scientists at Cardiff University and Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), Venice, focussed on plankton’s bioluminescence, migration, production of mucus shields and process of hardening into shells, fossils and sedimentary rock. Though most plankton are microscopic in size, they are vital to the planet, producing up to half of its oxygen. Plankton undertake long migrations, whether drifting with tides and currents or undertaking daily journeys through vertical water columns to avoid predators. Species such as mixotrophs demonstrate adaptability by both photosynthesising energy like a plant, and hunting for food like an animal. Ntjam sees a parallel between these tactics of hybridisation and resilience, and the histories and communities centred in her work. In swell of spæc(i)es, plankton become mythological beings that carry their stories forward.

At ISMAR’s Palazzina Canonica, audiences are invited to join Ntjam’s process of proliferating avatars of mythical and ancestral figures. Using a bespoke AI interface, visitors can create fictional plankton creatures from Ntjam’s dataset. This includes images produced by ISMAR of locally sampled plankton and sculptures of water deities held in Western collections, such as Nommo and Mami Wata, a spirit known by many names, genders and forms across African and Caribbean cultures. The resulting creatures populate the marine ecosystem in the belly of the astral snake, simulated on site on an LED screen.

“[T]he non-anthropocentric dimension of my practice consists of dissolving the separation between human and non-human, between nature and history, which are two processes that are always already intertwined. I think our perception of nature — encompassing every non-human within a single term — is really revealing of the way in which dominant groups of people assign specific positions to the other, and this is one of the power mechanisms I attempt to deconstruct in my practice.”

— Josèfa Ntjam

Pavilion

Designed by UNA / UNLESS architecture studio, the pavilion housing Ntjam’s installation is situated within the courtyard of what was once the Ospedale degli Incurabili. Surrounded by colonnades, this “square” has witnessed the appearance and disappearance of a woodenchapel (built in 1523) and a church by Jacopo Sansovino (1565–1831). Since 1999 the courtyard has sat at the heart of the Venetian Accademia di Belle Arti, and served as a space for artistic Experimentation.

The pavilion is conceived as a triangular blue prism which points towards the water. Whilst its abstract presence might seem alien in Venice, its symmetry and reflective surface establish a subtle dialogue with the historic context. With a footprint of 350 square metres and a recyclable structure, the pavilion subtly interlocks with the structure of the old hospital, forming a temporary extension encompassing two of the courtyard’s defunct wells. Hermetic and impenetrable from the courtyard, it is completely open towards the loggia in which the art students socialise.

Upon entering the pavilion, a large convex curtain traces the curvature of Sansovino’s elliptical church, whose contour is also highlighted with pink stone slates in the courtyard pavement. This soft surface conceals a curved LED screen that immerses the viewer in the otherworldly environment of Ntjam’s cyclical film. The organic forms of swell of spæc(i)es stand in contrast to the pavilion’s striking geometry.

“The pavilion is a triangular blue prism that appears to have fallen from outer space, or else from the celestial realms projected by Josèfa Ntjam.”

— Giulia Foscari, UNA / UNLESS

Artist Biography

Josèfa Ntjam is an artist, performer and writer based in SaintÉtienne, France. Her practice combines sculpture, photomontage, moving image and sound. Collecting the raw material of her work from the internet, books on natural sciences and photographic archives, Ntjam uses assemblage — of images, words, sounds and stories — as a method to deconstruct the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on origin, identity and race. Her work weaves multiple narratives drawn from investigations into historical events, scientific processes and philosophical concepts, which she confronts using references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism and science fiction.

References & Credits

swell of spæc(i)es is influenced by the work of the following people:

Actress, Fatima Al Qadiri, Bearcubs, ML Buch, Vinciane Despret, Dialect, Drexciya, Lauren Duffus, Kodwo Eshun, Krista Franklin, Édouard Glissant, Lorainne James, Bruce Lee, Lotic, Dr Aditee Mitra, Hayao Miyazaki, Achille Mbembe, Willfried N'Sondé, The Otolith Group, Sun Ra, Hugues Reip, Christian Sardet, Shabazz Palaces, Rivers Solomon, SZA, Mawena Yehouessi

Credits

Josèfa Ntjam: swell of spæc(i)es, 2024
Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation
20 April – 24 November 2024

swell of spæc(i)es public programme is presented with Ocean Space, Istituto di Scienze Marine and Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.

Josèfa Ntjam Team

LAS Project team

PRODUCTION AND INSTALLATION TEAM

With thanks to:

LAS team and Louise Nielsen, Ann-Charlotte Günzel, Amira Gad and Liz Stumpf; Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (Riccardo Caldura and Carlotta Rossitto); Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Scienze Marine Venezia (Mario Sprovieri and Francesco Marcello Falcieri); Ocean Space (Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Markus Reymann, David Hrankovic, Marco Zappalorto, Eleni Tsopotou, Sara Mattiazzi, Valeria Bottalico, Barbara Nardacchione and Beatrice Brighenti); Josh Woolford, Camille Guibaud, Lua Lloyd, Brad Holdgrafer, Rees & Co (Carrie Rees, Rosanna Hawkins, Megan Miller, Manuela Gressani and Lauren Hare); Galerie Poggi, Paris (Jérôme Poggi and Camille Bréchignac); NıCOLETTı, London (Camille Houzé); and Pernod Ricard (Elisa Candiani).

Special thanks to Barrisol (Jean-Marc Scherrer and Giovanni di Tursi) and Kvadrat (Anne Schirra).