Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Exhibition overview

Bloomberg SPACE

Located on the ground floor of the London Mithraeum, Bloomberg SPACE showcases a series of contemporary art commissions responding, and bringing fresh perspectives to the site’s rich archaeological history.

Our 2023-2024 commission was The Pavilion (2023) by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, the artist’s first UK solo exhibition at a public institution. Inspired by the history of the site, Sunstrum explored how the public engages with archives and artefacts, and their presentation in museum spaces. The Pavilion was a wooden structure comprising a promenade of interrelated viewing booths reminiscent of Victorian ‘cabinets of curiosities’, often considered precursors to museums. The intricate cabinetry, designed in collaboration with Remco Osório Lobato, housed an archive of Sunstrum’s animations dating from 2007 – 2016 that drew on the artist’s fascination with ancient mythologies, scientific theories, mythological archetypes and the cosmos.

Exploring the public’s relationship with museums and archives, The Pavilion encouraged visitors to experience the installation in numerous ways. On one side of the structure, each animation was presented in a way tailored to the specific work, featuring silent analogue screens, recessed views and portals. On the reverse side, viewers discovered an area of contemplation adorned with multifaceted furnishings hand-painted and embellished by Sunstrum.

“The mysterious unknowns of the myth of Mithras, central to the history of the London Mithraeum, resonated with my own fascination with ancient mythologies. I’m interested in interpreting – and often deliberately misinterpreting – theories on the structure and origins of the universe. Read as a whole, the animations and furnishings of ‘The Pavilion’ will offer a poetic cosmogony and personal interpretation of the order of things: stars, earth forms, the insides, the outsides, and the beyond-what-we-can-see.” Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Press release

Engage further with the artwork by taking an audio tour with the artist or watching a video of her creative process on our free digital guide, Bloomberg Connects.

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum
b. 1980, Mochudi, Botswana

Sunstrum’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, painting, installation and animation. The imagery in Sunstrum’s work reflects the diverse genealogies of her experience living in different parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the U.S. as well as her ongoing research into mythology, geology, and theories on the nature of the universe.

Current exhibition:

Past exhibitions: