Agyepong’s intertwined interests in performance, psychology and photography come to the fore in her new solo exhibition, Through Motion, opening at Doyle Wham on 6 February and running to 22nd March. The show presents a concise survey of Agyepong’s pivotal works to date, through two projects: her video performance piece The Body Remembers (2022) exhibited in public for the first time, and the series ego death. The works posit Agyepong’s ideas about the body as an archive, and the therapeutic potential of movement. The Body Remembers, for example, follows the principles adapted from self-directed movement therapy, which encourages the body to speak; the voices of Black women in trauma recovery provide a deeply moving audio accompaniment.

Imme Dattenberg-Doyle and Sofia Carreira Wham, directors of Doyle Wham gallery, are Agyepong’s Champions for The Wick. They said: “we had admired Heather’s work for years, and finally had the pleasure of meeting her in 2023. As soon as we did, we knew we absolutely had to work together! As a small gallery, each artist relationship is fundamental, and we feel that the best collaborations and exhibitions are born from genuine relationships”, the duo says. “Heather is truly an inspiring creative force who brings light to everyone around her – through her work in front of the lens, behind the lens, on stage and in her everyday presence. While her work is born from self-exploration, her vulnerability in this process unlocks a special type of understanding for viewers too. As a result, interacting with her artworks has the ability to help us all in our own journeys, from reconnecting our bodies and minds, to unlocking past and hidden selves, and paying tribute to our ancestors.”

After the exhibition at Doyle Wham, which marks the last show at the gallery’s current space in Shoreditch, Agyepong is off for a two month residency at St John’s College, Oxford University. “I am thrilled about it as it will give me the time to slow down and make work.” The new work will be exhibited later this year, at The New Art Exchange (NAE) in Nottingham, (opening 10 October).

Another key work in Through Motion is ego death. The ruminiative, poignant photographic series was originally a commission for Jerwood Arts & Photoworks, in which the artist explores Carl Jung’s concept of the ‘shadow’ – the part of the self considered shameful and subsequently suppressed. Agyepong’s process began with free writing, evolving to a shooting a series of double-exposed portraits of her self as seven different characters, to represent different shadows. The blue hue Agyepong employs references the films Moonlight and Get Out, both haunting psychological works of the Black psyche and body. “In Ego Death, I go deeper than ever before into myself, using Carl Jung’s theory of “the Shadow” to unlock parts of my personality that have been shamed and suppressed,” the artist tells The Wick.

It takes courage to dig so deep into the recesses of one’s own experiences, but Agyepong unravels something universally shared to the viewer in doing so. “The work always starts with me. Something I’m going through, frustrations, questions that relate to myself and my surroundings. The work is about transformation, rediscovery and mourning old versions of self. Without these burning underpinnings, the work can’t be produced.”