Khadija Saye

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Khadija Saye
Born(1992-07-30)30 July 1992
Hammersmith, London, England
Died14 June 2017(2017-06-14) (aged 24)
North Kensington, London, England
Cause of deathGrenfell Tower fire
Other namesYa-Haddy Sisi Saye
EducationRugby School
Alma materUniversity for the Creative Arts
OccupationArtist/Photographer
Known forPhotography and artwork
Websitesayephoto.format.com estateofkhadijasaye.co.uk

Khadija Mohammadou Saye (30 July 1992 – 14 June 2017),[1] also known as Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye,[2] was a Gambian-British photographer.[3][4] Her photography explored her Gambian-British identity and was exhibited in 2017 in the first Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Saye died in the Grenfell Tower fire.

Life and work

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Saye was born in Hammersmith and grew up in Ladbroke Grove.[1] She initially attended the Sion Manning Roman Catholic Girls' School in North Kensington.[5] Her love of photography was fostered by after-school clubs run by IntoUniversity, a programme that seeks to remove barriers to participation in the arts by children from disadvantaged communities.[6] At age 16 she won a scholarship to Rugby School in Rugby.[7] Later she attended the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham and obtained a photography degree.[8][9]

Saye's photography explored her Gambian-British identity.[10] Her series of six wet plate collodion tintypes entitled Dwellings: in this space we breathe, based on Gambian spiritual practices,[6][11] was exhibited in the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale from May to November 2017.[2][8][12][13] Saye took part in a BBC TV documentary, Venice Biennale: Sink or Swim, which "follows a team of diverse emerging artists as they install and prepare to launch the first ever Diaspora Pavilion in a Venetian palazzo during the Venice Biennale."[10]

Saye was also an activist and educator. She volunteered at Jawaab to educate and empower young Muslims,[14] and from 2015 to 2016 worked at PEER, a comtemporary arts centre in Hoxton, as a Creative Access intern.[3][15]

Personal life and death

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Saye lived with her mother, Mary Ajaoi Augustus Mendy, on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower in North Kensington.[2][7] She was mentored by artist Nicola Green and became friends with Green's husband, Tottenham MP David Lammy.[7][16] Both Saye and her mother died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017.[2][3][8][17][18]

Legacy

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Saye's In this space we breathe at the British Library, September 2021

The BBC TV programme on the Venice Biennale that included Saye, originally scheduled to air on 17 June 2017,[10] was postponed after her death[19] and transmitted in September 2017 as Venice Biennale: Britain's New Voices.[20]

Most of Saye's work was destroyed in the fire. The six tintypes on exhibit in Venice survived, as did three others. Portfolios of nine silkscreen prints were produced from high-resolution scans of these works.[6] In June 2017, Tate Britain announced that it would exhibit a silkscreen from one of these sets, Sothiou, in the memorials section.[21] Works by her were part of the reopening show of Kettle's Yard in Cambridge on 10 February 2018.[11] Complete series of nine silkscreens were exhibited at Victoria Miro Gallery in London from 2 October to 2 November 2019 as part of Rock My Soul, an exhibition of black female artists curated by the artist Isaac Julien,[6][22] and from 3 December 2020 to 7 October 2021 in the Entrance Hall Gallery of the British Library.[23] Between 23 October 2020 and 1 August 2021 the British Library also exhibited one of the original tintypes, Peitaw, as part of the exhibition Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights.[24]

Sales of the silkscreen portfolios and other works by Saye benefit her estate and the Khadija Saye Arts arts education programme at IntoUniversity,[6] which was officially launched in July 2020.[25] The launch coincided with the unveiling of Breath is Invisible, in which large-scale prints of the nine images in Saye's In this space we breathe series were displayed across the façade of 236 Westbourne Grove in West London. This was the first of three exhibitions to run at the space intended to explore social inequality and injustice.[26][27] An auction of her works at Christie's as part of the Post-War and Contemporary Day Auction in 2018 realised £8,750 for the first of the silkscreen portfolios, and £43,750 for the original tintype of Nak Bejjen from In this space we breathe.[6]

A paid internship at PEER has been set up in Saye's name for young BAME artists,[15] and in 2019 the London Transport Museum launched a photography fellowship programme in her name.[28]

Selected exhibitions

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  • Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, 2014
  • Diaspora Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Palazzo Pisani S Marina, Venice, Italy, 2017
  • Tate Modern, London, 2017
  • Actions, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 2018
  • In this space we breathe, British Library, London, 2020–21
  • Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, British Library, London, 2020–21[1][29]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Khadija Saye photographer". Ben Uri research unit. Ben Uri Gallery & Museum. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "London fire: Who are the victims?". BBC News. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Movahedi, Sanaz (17 June 2017). "Among the victims, my kind, funny friend Khadija Saye, and her mum". The Observer. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  4. ^ Berrington, Katie (19 June 2017). "Remembering Artist Khadija Saye". Vogue. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Khadija Saye (St 08-10)". Rugbeians. Rugby School. Retrieved 17 July 2017.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ a b c d e f Brady, Anna (20 September 2019). "Grenfell victim Khadija Saye's salvaged images to be sold for charity at Victoria Miro". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Smyth, Diane (20 June 2017). "Obituary: Khadija Saye, fast-rising artist killed tragically young in Grenfell Tower". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  8. ^ a b c Topping, Alexandra (17 June 2017). "Khadija Saye: artist on cusp of recognition when she died in Grenfell". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  9. ^ "Artist Khadija Saye confirmed as victim of Grenfell Tower fire". A-N. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  10. ^ a b c "Venice Biennale: Sink or Swim". Programmes. BBC Two. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017.
  11. ^ a b Brown, Mark (4 December 2017). "Works by artist who died in Grenfell fire to be shown at Cambridge gallery". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  12. ^ Shaw, Annie (19 June 2017). "In pictures: the 'remarkable, powerful' works of Khadija Saye who died in Grenfell Tower blaze". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  13. ^ Brinkhurst-Cuff, Charlie (20 June 2017). "Celebrating the art of Khadija Saye, a Grenfell fire victim". Dazed. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  14. ^ "One year on from Grenfell – we celebrate the real Khadija Saye". Jawaab. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  15. ^ a b "Khadija Saye 1992-2017". PEER. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  16. ^ Sommers, Jack (16 June 2017). "David Lammy Fights Back Tears Describing Khadija Saye, Who Died In Grenfell Tower Fire". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  17. ^ Woodcock, Andrew (17 June 2017). "Grenfell Tower fire: 24-year-old artist Khadija Saye named as victim". The Independent. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  18. ^ "Five-year-old Grenfell fire victim died after his hand slipped from his neighbour's grasp as they tried to escape". Daily Telegraph. 26 June 2017.
  19. ^ Grafton-Green, Patrick (17 June 2017). "BBC pulls documentary featuring Grenfell Tower fire victim". Evening Standard. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  20. ^ "Venice Biennale: Britain's New Voices". Programmes. BBC Two. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  21. ^ Sulcas, Roslyn (20 June 2017). "Art of a Grenfell Tower Fire Victim Is Shown by the Tate". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  22. ^ Brady, Anna (20 September 2019). "Grenfell victim Khadija Saye's salvaged images to be sold for charity at Victoria Miro". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  23. ^ "Khadija Saye – In this space we breathe". Events. The British Library. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  24. ^ Thompson, Jessie (23 October 2020). "Six defining London moments from the history of women's rights". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  25. ^ Bakare, Lanre (7 July 2020). "Art project launched in honour of Grenfell artist Khadija Saye". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  26. ^ Edmonds, Lizzie (7 July 2020). "Khadija Saye artworks on display in outdoor Notting Hill exhibition". Evening Standard. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  27. ^ Shaw, Anny (7 July 2020). "'Tender, gentle and creative soul': outdoor exhibition in west London pays tribute to artist Khadija Saye who died in Grenfell fire". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  28. ^ "Photography fellowship launched in memory of Khadija Saye". Museums Association. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  29. ^ "About". Estate of Khadija Saye. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
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