On a rainy day in Bern, just hours before the opening of Superbloom at the Stadtgalerie, Rhoda Davids Abel reflects on the intricate layers of her practice. Her work is a convergence of dreams, oral histories, and the unspoken stories embedded in everyday objects. Born into a lineage of dreamers, Rhoda sees dreams as a form of living archive—one that exists beyond institutions, shaping personal and collective memory.
Her work traverses multiple mediums including poetic text, photography, video and performance. Tin cans, inherited fabrics, ostrich eggshells, colorful ribbons, and produce bags become vessels of memory and meaning. Abel is drawn to objects that have lived—accumulating energy, stories, and histories that she reshapes into new narratives.
At the core of Superbloom is Rhoda’s deep engagement with storytelling. Her work transforms family myths into expansive visual narratives, including a tale passed down by her grandmother. This story speaks of a family goat with whom Rhoda’s grandmother could communicate—one that would transform into a cloud, carrying messages between relatives. In her installation, these mythical cloud-goats take form as floating produce bags, adorned with bells, shells, and tin cans, embodying generations of accumulated stories and ancestral memory.
The exhibition title, Superbloom, is a nod to Namaqualand, where her ancestors lived—a region that experiences rare and spectacular floral blooms under the right conditions. The metaphor is fitting: Rhoda’s work nurtures forgotten, buried, or silenced stories, allowing them to surface and flourish in new, unexpected ways.
Through her multidisciplinary practice, Rhoda Davids Abel doesn’t just document history; she reimagines it, creating an ever-expanding archive where mythology, materiality, and memory intertwine.
