Lagos Soundscapes, Emeka Ogboh (2023) (EMPIRE LINES x South London Gallery, Southbank Centre)

Curator Folakunle Oshun links Peckham in the UK, and Lagos in Nigeria, with water and two centuries of shared colonial histories. Artist David Sanya captures European statues and lingering stereotypes in West Africa. Plus, Emeka Ogboh projects the sounds of the megacity onto the streets of south east London, and recreates the taste of migration with a brand new beer.

Often called ‘Little Lagos’, Peckham in south east London is home to one of the largest Nigerian diaspora communities. When the West African country declared independence after a century of British colonial rule in 1960, the flow of migration soon increased, with economic crises and civil unrest in the country. But individuals and families have long moved between both places. As a port city, Lagos became key to the transatlantic slave trade; its name meaning ‘lake’, after the Portuguese, the first Europeans in the area.

Using water as a channel to connect Lagos and London, a new exhibition at the South London Gallery brings together both Nigerian and British-Nigerian artists like Yinka Shonibare, crossing generations and diasporas. Its curator Folakunle Oshun, founder and director of the Lagos Biennal, describes growing up with CNN, navigating imperial architectures in Berlin and Paris, and why he’d never drive in London. Artist Emeka Ogboh takes us beyond the museum space, using loudspeakers to project the sound of Lagos’ Danfo bus drivers onto the streets of Peckham. We sip his ‘bittersweet’ beer made in collaboration with local brewery Orbit, a blend of English hops and Nigerian alligator pepper, and discuss how food and art can together capture the ‘multisensorial’ experience of migration.

Plus, closer to the River Thames, Birmingham-based artist David Sanya traces his travels from Nigeria to the UK, and how he combines the European artistic tradition of the sublime with Lagos’ distinctive lake and seascapes, creating contemporary photographs of his own environments.

Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes runs at South London Gallery until 29 October 2023.

Reframe: The Residency Exhibition runs at the Southbank Centre until 27 August 2023, part of the Southbank Centre’s Planet Summer.

For more, you can read my article.

For more on A History of City in a Box, hear artist Ndidi Dike on EMPIRE LINES: https://pod.link/1533637675/episode/386dbf4fcb2704a632270e0471be8410

WITH: Folakunle Oshun, artist, curator, and founder and director of the Lagos Biennal. He is the co-curator of Lagos, Peckham, Repeat. Emeka Ogboh, sound and installation artist best known for his soundscapes of life in Lagos. Born in Nigeria and based between Lagos and Berlin, he creates multisensory work that takes the form of audio, installation, sculpture, and food and drink. David Sanya, artist and photographer. Born and raised in Lagos, he migrated to the UK in 2016, and practices between Birmingham and London. His collaborative work, I AM YOUR MOTHER DISMANTLED, is on view as part of Reframe: The Residency.

ART: ‘Lagos Soundscapes, Emeka Ogboh (2023)’.

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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