Seyi Adelekun - Assembly 2026

Seyi Adelekun: (un)drowned

Rooted in the ecological wisdom of Black liberation movements, Adelekun's work asks what it means to be submerged yet remain undrowned? To survive in deep waters, to breathe beneath the surface and to reclaim one's voice?

The project draws from Black Mary’s Well, a source of the River Fleet that was once tended by Mary Wollaston, a 17th-century Black well keeper in Clerkenwell. Once a site of public healing, collective care, and ancestral technology, it is now polluted and buried. Its untold history becomes a lens to express how colonialism devalued certain bodies, human and more-than-human, rendering them unworthy of care.

Adelekun weaves live experimental vocals, water percussion, movement and breathwork with hydrophone recordings and shared testimonies to amplify voices of the unheard and unseen, inviting us to draw from our inner wells and imagine forms of care that replenish our collective wellbeing.

Seyi Adelekun is supported by the Assembly Residency opportunity, a 12-month programme for emerging artists shaped by Somerset House Studios in collaboration with artist mentors Beatrice Dillon and Elaine Mitchener.