HOME presents WATA, Further Explorations, an exhibition bringing together new works from Ronan Mckenzie and Joy Yamusangie. Taking root in Mckenzie and Yamusangie’s first formal collaboration, a short film of the same name - in collaboration with Gucci - produced at the beginning of 2020, WATA weaves together considerations of ancestry, cross cultural connections, music and migration. Telling the story of Mami Wata, a water deity traced back to West Africa, Central Africa and the Caribbean, in Mckenzie and Yamusangie’s interpretation she is drawn into a dance with The Musician. The Musician is tantalised by Mami Wata’s jewels, and in his desire to bring them to the surface, the two circle the lines between finding, taking and finally appreciating. With an original score, interweaving a dual narrative of sound and visuals, musicians Melo-Zed, Roxanne Tataei, Boofti and Birame are brought together for the first time. WATA is the culmination of a long-term friendship and exchange between Mckenzie and Yamusangie, opening up an avenue through which they explore their love and fascination with the colour blue, West and Central African Jazz music, as well as their own African and Caribbean ancestry. 

Since bringing WATA into the public sphere for the first time in March 2020, Mckenzie and Yamusangie have been continuing to build upon and draw out connections from the original work. There are threads which connect Mckenzie and Yamusangie’s Further Explorations. Tonally, the repeated colour scheme of blue, white and brown hues draw the mind back to earth, to nature, to ground walked and waters traversed. Musically, there is an improvised call and response. Yamusangie’s musicians communicate through played chords and Mckenzie’s figures through instinctual movement. Just as with their own collaboration, there is an overriding concern with how we speak through and out to one another – engaged in a continual, ever moving dance of exchange.

Here, at HOME for the first time, Mckenzie and Yamusangie invite you in, not only as an onlooker but as a participant. May you move and dance through the space, compelled by and contributing to their collective song.