Exhibition: IN SITU: Otobong Nkanga – Bruises and Lustre
M HKA, Antwerpen
14 October 2015 19:00 - 17 January 2016 18:00
Courtesy of THE EKARD COLLECTION
The IN SITU programme is a series of mid-sized monographic exhibitions of some of the most important fledgling and mid-career artists from around the world. The programme focuses exclusively on the commissioning of new artworks and on experimental presentations in the largest and most atypical exhibition space of the museum.
Throughout her multifaceted artistic practice, Antwerp artist Otobong Nkanga (born in 1974, Kano, Nigeria) presents active proposals for thinking about some of the most pressing problems of our time. One of the major and persistent issues revolves around the world's natural resources. Nkanga makes art about the relationships between, and the exploitation of, the landscape, people and work. She wants to expose the relationship between rarity and desire, which is a key point in the complex networks of supply and demand which govern globalisation.
Otobong Nkanga is fascinated by what she describes as 'gloss'. To her, this does not just mean thinking about the shiny surfaces of natural resources, such as rare minerals, but also the desire to be seduced by exotic consumption objects. Glimmer is the lesser-known Dutch name for the valuable mineral mica, which is the subject of her installation In Pursuit of Bling (2014).
Nkanga's works - drawings, performances, sculptures and other media - are built around a more holistic understanding of place and time in which non-linear fragments of stories, experiences and photos are linked. In addition to In Pursuit of Bling, the artist created a new series of large-scale tapestries and carpet for the exhibition. Along with drawings and installations, these elements brought forward the ideas for a series of performances and participatory actions which Nkanga organized during the exhibition.
Media
>Otobong Nkanga, The Flow Will Not Stop!, 2011
>View of the exhibition
>View of the exhibition
>ARTtube video for IN SITU : Bruises and Lustre from Otobong Nkanga 15.10.2016 - 17.01.2016
>Exhibition view
>View of the exhibtion
>View of the exhibition
WorksShow artists
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences I: Crisis, 2009. Drawing, round stickers, acrylic on paper, 29 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences II: The Overload - Projectiles - Piercing Pressure - Hostage - Wastescape - The Overflow, 2009. Drawing, stickers, acrylic on paper, § x (29 x 42 cm).
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences II: The Choice We Make, 2009. Drawing, stickers, acrylic on paper, 2 x (29 x 42 cm).
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences III: Without you Everything Falls Apart - Engaged - Body Builder – The Overload - Waiting for X - Fractured , 2010. Drawing, acrylic, sticker, paper, 29,7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Filtered Memories 1990 - 1992: Survival, 1990 - 91, F.G.C. Shagamu., 2010. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, The Squeeze, 2011. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, The Bigger Plan, 2011. Drawing, acrylic on paper, collage, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, The Flow Will Not Stop!, 2011. Drawing, stickers, acrylic on paper, 80 x 109.5 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Whose Crisis is This?, 2013. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, The Dream We Could Have, 2013. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences IV: The Mapping - The Pile - Emptied Pit - Ruin , 2013. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 4 x (29 x 42 cm).
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences IV: The Takeover, 2013. Drawing, stickers, acrylic on paper, 2 x (29 x 42 cm).
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences IV: The Dreamer, 2014. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Social Consequences IV: Avaritia, 2014. Drawing, acrylic on paper, 29.7 x 42 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, In Pursuit of Bling, 2014. Installation, inkjet prints, lightbox, metal modulated structure, minerals, objects, texts, videos with sound, woven textile pieces, variable dimensions.
> Otobong Nkanga, Wetin You Go Do!, 2015. Audio and visual equipment, lp.
> Otobong Nkanga, Backstage, 2015. Installation.
> Otobong Nkanga, Infinite Yield, 2015. Mixed Media, textile.
> Otobong Nkanga, The Weight of Scars, 2015. Other, textile.
> The Apparatus, 2015. Drawing, acrylic and acrylic modelling paste on paper, 179 x 126 cm.
> Otobong Nkanga, Solid Maneuvers, 2015. Sculpture, various metals, forex, acrylic, tar, salt, make-up, vermiculite, variable dimensions.
> Otobong Nkanga, From Where I Stand, 2015. Installation, textile, 11.18 x 6.23 m.