Otobong Nkanga: To Dig a Hole That Collapses Again
Everything exists in a state of constant transformation. Minerals. Plants. Soil. People.
Otobong Nkanga describes the ideas that form the basis of her work as she installs "Otobong Nkanga: To Dig a Hole That Collapses Again" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Otobong Nkanga’s multi-disciplinary practice spans tapestry, drawing, photography, installation, video and performance.
Her visual investigation addresses the politics of land and its relationship to the body, as well as the complex and fraught histories of land acquisition and ownership by connecting threads that reveal the entanglements of bodies, land and natural resources. Nkanga is concerned with raw material production and how mining and other forms of extraction leave irreversible traces in the landscape.
Full of literary, religious, and geological references, her work sheds light on how production affects both humans and nature, but also how dependent the world is on this circulation of goods. In Nkanga, the theme is often given a poetic setting, where the titles are central to the understanding of the works.
Represented by Lumen Travo Galerie