Nigerian-born and Antwerp-based artist Otobong Nkanga reflects metonymically on the use and cultural value of natural resources, revealing how the meaning and function of the same products are relative within different cultures.
In her talk, Otobong Nkanga will focus on a body of site-specific works that have been shown in different contexts and geographical spaces. Her recent performances and installations, such as Contained Measures of Shifting States, Taste of a Stone: Itiat Esa Ufok, and Glimmer, take account of the public’s presence and ways of negotiating the body in space to provoke a discussion or contemplation. By using the exhibition space as a place for experimentation, the work has the possibility to be shaped in situ.
Her recent shows and performances include: Tracing Confessions, Museum Folkwang, Essen (2015); Landings: Confrontation and Confession, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; How to (…) things that don’t exist, 31st São Paulo Biennial; 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013); Across the Board: Politics of Representation, Tate Modern, London; Inventing the World: The Artist as Citizen, Biennale Regard Bénin; Tropicomania: The Social life of Plants, Bétonsalon, in the framework of La Triennale, Paris; and Object Atlas – Fieldwork in the Museum, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main (2012).
Otobong Nkanga, Glimmer Fragments, 2014. Part of the “Glimmer” performance series. Duration: one hour. Body fitting metal sculpture, Mica (lepidolite, phlogopite, muscovite, fuchsite, biotite), gloves, plastic card. Presented at "Landings: Confrontation and Confession” at The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Photo: Ernst Van Deursen