Artist Talks

Land as a Conscious Being with Nii Obodai

recorded on Friday 14 January

Land as a conscious being: Nii Obodai presents ‘Big Dreams’ and ‘Paradox of Paradise’.

Scratching the Surface with Justin Keene

recorded on Friday 21 January

Justin Keene and Dr Julie Bonzon discuss Justin’s series ‘Walls in the Riverbed’.

Contemporary African Photography in Focus

Justin Keene

Based in the UK, Justin Keene (b. 1989) directs his photographic lens on South Africa, where his parents lived. Across his lyrical and poetic imagery, Keene explores concepts of identity and representation, as well as his conflicting relationship with this country, its colonial legacy and the so-called ‘born free’ generation. In the series It Must Be Built From Ashes, Keene reflects on South Africa as a post colony— exploring past and present effects on social and physical landscapes. His current body of work, Walls in the Riverbed, examines colonial archives depicting South Africa’s early diamond mining industry — using his personal connection with the topic to interpret representation of imperial legacies.

Justin Keene’s work has been included in selected exhibitions, notably the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London, LensCulture Exposure Awards, Sony World Photo at Somerset House and the Photo Vogue Festival in Milan.

Selected works from the collection ‘It Must Be Built From Ashes’

Selected works from the collection ‘Walls in the Riverbed’

Nii Obodai

Nii Obodai (b. 1968) has had an extensive photographic career over the last two decades, deploying the medium to record and document the ‘unseen’ and every day in Africa. Photographing in black and white, his contemplative images bring attention to the remains, traces, and scars of the past on the land, especially in Mozambique and Ghana, where Nii Obodai grew up. In his series Who Knows Tomorrow, Nii Obodai explores his relationship with Ghana, the country of his father, by retracing his father’s steps, hopes and aspirations, and translating his own emotions into images. Big Dreams tackles gold mining in Ghana, and the relationship between this country and the world economy. Created in Mozambique, his most recent project, Paradox of Paradise, explores the environment as a living and mythological space bound by oral and historical stories, as well as narratives of self-determination.

Selected works from the collection ‘Who knows tomorrow’

Selected works from the collection ‘Big Dreams’

Selected works from the collection ‘Paradox of Paradise’