Mani Kambo

Opening on 7 December 2024, Mani Kambo’s solo show is a major new commission and will be the artist’s first institutional exhibition. A multidisciplinary artist, Mani Kambo is based in Newcastle upon Tyne and explores the inner spirit by drawing on her own personal totemic symbols. 

Influenced by her upbringing in a household filled with superstition, prayer, and religious ceremony, Kambo’s practice encompasses textiles, fabric dying and printmaking, and is rooted in her family history within the caste system. 

Kambo questions routines, objects and rituals distilled in the everyday and mythology. She is interested in the human soul and its connection to the cosmos, taking inspiration from the Latin phrase ‘axis mundi’. Translating to ‘world axis’, the phrase has become a common symbol in many religions and regions, and for Kambo it represents a vertical bridge between heaven and earth, connecting the surface of the earth to the underworld and the heavens. 

Her work records movement, and documents performative actions – the hand that creates the action, fire that reveals, water which is the purifier, and eyes that perceive - through the exploration of totemic objects and symbols. Through layering and editing images together she collages narratives and weaves dreamscapes. These visuals are repeated throughout her work like markers linking to notions of spirituality and belief in reincarnation.