The Twain Shall Meet Again Njideka
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Mother and Kid (2016), courtesy of Victoria Miro
Currently on view at Victoria Miro, Portals is Njideka Akunyili Crosby'southward first solo testify in Britain. Drawing upon religious art, traditional modes of bookish portrait painting, personal anecdotes, history, and cross-cultural exchange, her new series of large-scale paintings examine generalisations almost African diaspora and notions of cultural identity. Born in Nigeria, Akunyili Crosby moved to the United States at the historic period of 16, and currently resides in Los Angeles. She is in many means culturally tied to her homeland, a identify she uses every bit a source of great inspiration, only her piece of work is largely grounded in Western art history. With a smashing interest in the means society categorises individuals and cultures every bit a whole, she is aware of the groups she falls into. She has been noted past others, and in many means identifies, equally an African American woman, as a Nigerian woman, as an American woman, every bit a married woman, and equally an artist; she exists as an individual who inhabits many spheres, residing in a realm of constant flux and transformation.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, "The Beautyful Ones," Series #5 (2016), courtesy of Victoria Miro
Her multi-layered and highly complex paintings are a way for her to contribute to this new crop of people, the new cultural identity of a body in transition— an immigrant occupying two identities, two singled-out cultures. Her compositions are usually figurative, and are always very layered, both literally in terms of collage techniques and metaphorically by making reference to a long line of pictorial symbolism. The series Portals is an invitation for the viewer into her life, where she creates interior scenes or as she calls them 'wormholes,' past which the viewer tin can examine individual identities that exist in scenes of everyday life. She renders her family and friends while they consume, drink, and watch idiot box, unproblematic activities that act as points of departure and arrival for examining the ebbs and flows of cross-cultural identity. The windows, screens, doors, and televisions act as points of entry for crossing the threshold into a new cultural realm. The ethos of her exercise is to uncover nuances in time, space, and values that exist in dissimilar societies and regions.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ike Ya (2016), courtesy of Victoria Miro
In the work Ike Ya (2016) she captures an affectionate moment between a couple. However, alongside the tenderness of the embrace there is also a sense of pacifying another's behaviour. Like most of her other portraits, the viewer doesn't meet the gaze of the field of study, rather examining the piece of work from a slightly voyeuristic perspective. Additionally she and her husband are oft the models for her paintings, then in many means this image addresses her anxieties about marrying a white American man, someone who is rooted in some other civilization. As in many of her other works, her loaded symbolic iconography becomes clear only upon closer inspection. At first glance the painting portrays a relatively westernised couple in their home, even so there are key objects that are indicative of an attending to Nigerian pop culture and politics. Using an acetone transfer technique the artist lays a second moving ridge of imagery that layers her Nigerian self with her American cocky. Offsetting the couple are Nollywood picture show posters, Nigerian celebrities, and 'Bring Back our Girls' slogans, in reference to the 2014 kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram. Additionally the artists grandmother's storm lantern is included in the scene, an item that is present throughout her oeuvre, such as in Grandmother's Parlour (2016).
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Grandmother'southward Parlour (2016), courtesy of Victoria Miro
Truly a master storyteller Akunyili Crosby"s work operates in an 'in-between' realm, examining different zones of identity and normalcy. In Super Blueish Omo (2016), the title refers both to a well-known brand of washing powder that was advertised in Nigeria in the 1980s, and that Akunyili Crosby would have been familiar with equally a child, also as an emotional state of 'blueness.' The advertisement for the cleaning production is playing on the television, while the solitary female figure stares off into the altitude. Sitting on a couch with a tea ready for two, this image of coolness draws connections between article appurtenances and psychological states.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Super Blue Omo (2016), courtesy of Victoria Miro
The objects in Akunyili Crosby's works hold equal symbolic weight as the sitters, sometimes interim equally stand-ins for particularly loaded visual icons. The Twain Shall Run into (2015) alludes to traditional still lives in the art historical canon. The image depicts an interior scene with a table owned by her grandmother centrally placed. Atop the tabular array are framed images of her family members, likewise as the recurring motif of her grandmother'south kerosene lamp which makes reference to rural areas of Nigeria where electricity is unreliable or nonexistent. There are besides tea containers and images of the Virgin Mary, making a commentary on the history of British colonial rule.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, The Twain Shall See (2015), courtesy of Victoria Miro
The collaged elements and attention to texture plays into notions of dual identity, and counteract generalisations fabricated about African culture and the diasporic feel. Akunyili Crosby explains that 'the layers of herself change over time, equally she moves farther out into the world.' Her patchwork of iconography allows her to create multi-faceted individuals. Speaking to both urban and rural life, she depicts the many identities that be in a single person. It is difficult to categorise her figures into a simple box, because the specific idea of a character doesn't exist. Her vibrant works portray the contemporary feel of postcolonial self, of an private who inhabits a liminal space.
-S. Ozer
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [Victoria Miro]
rodriguezwasuacts.blogspot.com
Source: http://artobserved.com/2016/11/london-njideka-akunyili-crosby-portals-at-victoria-miro-through-november-5th-2016/
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