Autograph ABP Director, Mark Sealy, recently curated African Cosmologies – Photography, Time and the Other, the central programme of Houston’s FotoFest Biennial 2020. It’s the first time in the Biennial’s 37-year history that the central exhibition focused on artists of African origin. The exhibition is postponed due to Covid-19, however you can still explore the photography and ideas in the new hard-cover catalogue.
The book was curated by Mark and brings together 33 artists of African origin from around the globe, whose works challenge traditional notions of Blackness and transnational histories.
The artists turn an eye to social, cultural, and political conditions that inform and influence concepts of representation as they relate to image production and circulation in Africa and beyond. Questioning the ways in which subjectivity is constructed and deconstructed by the camera, and in the process, reveal legacies of resistance by those who defy traditional ideas of sexual, racial, gender-based, and other marginalised identities.
At 296 pages and 218 images, there’s a lot to see and think about – an important exposition of historical and contemporary Africa and the African diaspora.
Available to buy from Schilt Publishing’s website, £45 / €50 / $60
Artist include:
Faisal Abdu’Allah (UK), Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigeria/UK), Hélène A. Amouzou (Togo/Belgium), Sammy Baloji (Congo/Belgium), James Barnor (Ghana/UK), Bruno Boudjelal (France/Algeria), Edson Chagas (Angola), Ernest Cole (South Africa), Jamal Cyrus (USA), Jean Depara (Angola/Congo), Laura El-Tantawy (Egypt/UK), Samuel Fosso (Cameroon/France), Rahima Gambo (Nigeria), Eric Gyamfi (Ghana), Lyle Ashton Harris (USA), Samson Kambalu (Malawi/UK), Rotimi Fani-Kayode (Nigeria), leo with Shobun Baile (Brazil/US), Mónica de Miranda (Angola/Portugal), Santu Mofokeng (South Africa), Sethembile Msezane (South Africa), Zanele Muholi (South Africa), Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopia), Eustáquio Neves (Brazil), Nyaba L. Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso/France), Rosana Paulino (Brazil), Dawit L. Petros (Eritrea/USA/Canada), Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria/USA), Aida Silvestri (Eritrea/UK), Lindokuhle Sobekwa (South Africa/USA), Wilfred Ukpong (France/Nigeria), Carrie Mae Weems (USA)
