Exhibition in London’s Little Lagos shines light on UK-Nigeria links

When Peckham’s South London Gallery (SLG) first tried to host the Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh greater than a decade in the past, the establishment (to the shock of only a few folks carrying a inexperienced passport) bumped into visa issues. Ogboh was denied entry into the UK and in 2014 went on to do an artist’s residency with the German Tutorial Change Service in Berlin as an alternative. This summer season, nonetheless, Ogboh will be part of different Nigerian and British-Nigerian artists on the SLG—together with the Turner Prize-nominated Yinka Shonibare, the set up artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi, the multi-disciplinary artist Victor Ehikhamenor and the sculptor Ndidi Dike—for the present Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes.

The exhibition explores the connection between the UK and Nigeria, particularly the cultural alternate between continental Nigerians and British Nigerians. It additionally marks the launch of a residency alternate between Shonibare’s Visitor Artists Area (GAS) Basis in Lagos and the SLG, in a partnership the gallery’s director Margot Heller hopes will result in a long-term relationship.

The present’s curator, Folakunle Oshun, who can also be the founding father of the Lagos Biennial, says that Lagos and Peckham (typically referred to as Little Lagos due to its Nigerian inhabitants) must be considered reference factors for the immigrant expertise. “I believe it’s extra about migration, the embodiment of place and the way migrants from any tradition and society will go to a different a part of the world and pitch their tent… and re-enact rituals that remind them of dwelling,” he says.

Crucially, the present explores the move of individuals and tradition in all instructions. Ndidi Dike, Oshun says, is a metonym for this alternate. Born in London, she moved again to Nigeria earlier than returning to the UK for her secondary training. She accomplished her levels on the College of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is now primarily based in Owerri. Oshun is happy for audiences to see the contrasts between how completely different generations of immigrants relate to their British and Nigerian identities. There’s Shonibare, who’s 60, and his niece Temitayo Shonibare, who’s in her 20s, he says.

Nonetheless, “immigrant” is a loaded time period, and audiences could also be eager to see how the present grapples with this alongside extra joyful expressions of id. When he arrived within the UK, Oshun famous that his visa referred to him as a “artistic migrant” (not an expat, like a Brit in Nigeria could be referred to). Certainly, ten years later, curators on the SLG are nonetheless grappling with visa points. The GAS partnership has seen the London-based artist Chiizii full and return from her residency in Lagos. Nonetheless, the Nigeria-based Christopher Obuh is but to even start his. It’s a testomony to the need of the exhibition—an overdue recognition of this historic hyperlink and its impression in each international locations—that its curators stay undeterred.

• Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes, South London Gallery, 5 July-29 October