Jade Fadojutimi @ Houldsworth

This is Jadé Fadojutimi’s first solo show, which offers a window into her fractured identity and quest for self-knowledge. The artist practices a cathartic relationship with paint; each work manifests a moment of questioning where frustrations and fears sit alongside one another. Heliophobia (2017) reverberates with pent-up exasperation, whilst Clumsy (2017) documents awkwardness in all its brash abundance.
Fadojutimi explores how we adorn ourselves with clothes and accessories in order to construct a sense of self, with patterned stockings, bows and swatches of fabric recurring throughout the work. She delves into how our environment informs our identity, the trauma of feeling displaced and not belonging to one’s surroundings. Several of the works capture scenes of ‘familiar unfamiliarity’ where far-flung places and tropical foliage bleed in and out of abstraction. The show’s title Heliophobia, refers to an innate fear of sunlight that manifests this feeling of trepidation.