Into The Insula solo exhibtion

Alamance Mill is pleased to present Into The Insula, South African-based mixed media artist Rumbo Mercy’s first solo exhibition in the United States of America. 

Rumbo Mercy is a mixed media artist who employs surrealism and retrofuturistic imagery embedded in time and transportation, worldbuilding, and narratives of a strange yet familiar fictional place. She explores liminality and escapism via archival recordings and architecture alongside inspiration from Synthwave music. 

Set across the space at Alamance Mill, Into The Insula features work in multiple media. Mercy’s painting extensions from Bathroom Series will be on show for the first time as a precursor to the indefinite Bathroom Series. These acrylic paintings feature still liminal rooms that Mercy identifies as ‘strange yet familiar spaces.

The digital collages from Mercy’s exploration into time and transportation are presented as a portal into science fictional imagery and continue the theme of liminality. These surreal collages are set in space against images captured in the real, forming a collaborative to create a new reality.

Alcyone: Why do we migrate?, a video piece on migration and citizenship from the ongoing Into the Insula series, will be on show alongside a sound work, Outrun, that viewers will are invited to listen to as they walk throughout the exhibition.

The one-day exhibition opens on Saturday 7 January, 6 pm to late. Viewers are encouraged to bring earphones/headphones with their cellular devices for the sonic work.