Ola Intu: Flights at PAUSE/FRAME

Artists

Ola Intu

For August and September, PAUSE/FRAME (194 The Broadway) becomes the working studio and exhibition space for local artist Ola Intu, whose project FLIGHTS takes migration as both subject and metaphor.

Through paintings, painted objects and installations, Intu draws a line between human and animal journeys, using the recurring figure of the bird as a reminder that movement is part of the natural order. Birds cross borders without passport control; they follow instinct, seasons, and survival - a truth that cuts through the political spin and dehumanising narratives that dominate our media.

FLIGHTS takes shape in Wimbledon, a place the artist has called home for years and one that reflects the mix of histories, languages and life stories that migration brings. Her works - from a mural layered with fragments of online commentary, to life jackets and boats transformed into painted objects, to a temporary “refugee bird tent” - approach migration in its many forms: refugee, economic, climate-related, or the search for change.

Borrowing its title from Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, the project moves between the symbolic, the public, and the personal, creating space to reflect on how and why we move - and on the futures these movements might shape.