Sokari Douglas Camp C.B.E. Primavera (detail), 2015. Steel, gold leaf and acrylic paint, 201 x 72 x 162 cm. Sokari Douglas Camp C.B.E. A New Allegory for Spring ­­Cloth is to the African what monuments are to westerners. Sonya Clark1

The October Gallery’s Spring exhibition for 2016 coincides member of the dancing trio below. The scene appears paused with a series of exhibitions in other London galleries that in a timeless moment of stillness before the arrow flies, and concentrate on the work of one of the better known early yet, at the same time, it swirls with an inner dynamic that flows Renaissance artists, Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filpepi, from right to left. Movement begins from the irruption into the otherwise known as Botticelli.2 Botticelli was the brilliant scene of the flying Zephyros – the cold West wind – who leans pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi and Andrea del Verrocchio, and his down to capture the attention of the nymph, Chloris, Goddess cerebral style, though greatly admired in his day, fell out of of Flowers, who is destined to become his wife. This classical fashion, and he was almost forgotten by the time of his death. story, retold in Ovid’s Book of Days, describes how the surprised His eventual ‘rediscovery’, some four centuries later, in the 19th nymph transformed into Flora, the robed figure bedecked with century, by members of the Aesthetic movement, re-established flowers, to her left. Ovid is quite explicit when describing this his critical significance in the narrative history of art. Indeed, so metamorphosis, even to the point of etymological precision. ‘As low had Botticelli’s reputation fallen that, in 1872, John Ruskin, the Goddess talks, her lips breathe Spring roses. “I was Chloris, who’d previously travelled twice to Rome to study his Sistine who am now called Flora. Latin speech corrupted the Greek Chapel frescoes, was able to purchase the Virgin and Child that letters of my name.”’4 The left-most figure of this transforming now adorns the Ashmolean Museum’s collection, for a mere triad depicts the Goddess Flora, now fully dressed, distributing £300! Together with the Pre-Raphaelite painters, writers like pink, white and red blossoms from the folds of her robe as she Ruskin and Pater resuscitated interest in the sensuous linearity treads through the garden on a carpet of blooming flowers. of Botticelli’s style, and elevated the Florentine master’s status to a position where at least two of his masterpieces - La Primavera The calm, central figure, outlined against an arch of dark myrtle (c.1482) and The Birth of Venus (c.1486) – remain amongst the leaves, portrays Venus, the Goddess of Love and Queen of this most instantly recognisable paintings of today. enchanted bower. Her right hand is raised in benediction, as though sanctioning the arrow soon to be launched from Cupid’s Sokari Douglas Camp’s engagement with the first of these two bow. The pointing arrow leads the eye towards the trio of dancing works so informs the sequence of figurative steel sculptures Graces, whose delicate poses and intricately entwined fingers created over the last two years, that this exhibition borrows its capture the quintessence of movement contained by stillness. title, the Italian word for Spring, from the name by which that Finally, the expressive gaze of the foremost dancer darts towards masterpiece is known. In fact, no one knows today what the the attractive youth. He, perhaps flirtatiously, concentrates his actual title was. Primavera was the name attributed to the large attention on raising his staff to ward off threatening clouds. tempera on panel piece by the art historian, Giorgio Vasari, The classically trained will recognise the caduceus, or herald’s who first described it some seventy years after it was painted. staff, which together with the winged helmet and boots identify In English, the work is often referred to as The Allegory of Spring, the eye-catching youth as Mercury, Messenger of the Gods. and whilst there is continual debate about exact interpretation Others see this casually armed figure, modelled on a scion of of the work’s interpenetrating levels of allegorical, symbolic the wealthy Medici family thought to have commissioned the and philosophical meanings, the basic sense appears reasonably work, as representing Mars, the God of War, and one of Venus’ clear. Primavera is about the heady attractions of love, marriage long-standing paramours. The whole scene is organised around and fertility, all combined in that sensuality experienced in the central figure of Venus, who looks inquisitively at the Spring as The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.3 viewer, with disconcerting directness. The longing of woman for man, at left, is balanced against the lust of man for woman, In Botticelli’s painting, six beguiling, feminine figures occupy at right, and Cupid’s winged arrow is nocked to deliver the a central triangular space, flanked by two male figures at the shock that will shatter the stasis of time and set this enchanted left and right-hand margins of the frame. The triangle’s apex is frieze into flowing motion again. These basic ideas, based on surmounted by a winged Cupid aiming an arrow of love at one ancient sources, were Greek in original expression; the Romans

Sokari Douglas Camp. Photo: Jonathan Greet, 2016. 3 reimagined them; and Botticelli painted his iconic revisioning her from being mentored by Lamidi Fakaye, the renowned of suffering souls from Dante or Verrochio’s great equestrian among the rising 21st century generation would be able to of the tale some five hundred years ago. Yoruba wood-carver, to study in America and England, where statue in Venice. Sokari’s sculptures showed knights in combat recount the story of Chloris and Zephyros or define just how she progressed from Central (now called Central St. Martins) to against unseen foes lifting anguished bodies that had images of Mars relates to Venus. Yet most, on seeing it, will recognise the Born in southern , in Buguma a sizeable town in the . Her chosen medium is welded steel, cherubs set into their chests, suggestive of the innocent spirits Botticelli painting and realise that it communicates a significant the , Sokari Douglas Camp grew up in a richly which she reforms and wields with bravura, making light of the trapped within. As the emergency gradually subsided, the idea story. Botticelli’s two-dimensional account of these interlocking productive land of clean-flowing waters that nourished the material’s obdurate resistance to create lasting monuments to of calming her inner turmoil by consciously examining works fables relied upon the understanding of an audience sufficiently green islands of that delta region. Around that same time, the intangibles of culture, human invention and sensitivity that, of beauty instead, became the germ of this latest Primavera familiar with the undercurrents of the day to catch his drift. petroleum deposits were being discovered to the east, and large like islands in the stream, resist the onrushing flow of time. project, beginning in Spring, 2015. The choice of Botticelli’s His 15th century redrafting had given a revolutionary, novel multi-nationals, such as the US firm Chevron and the Anglo- allegorical paintings of beautiful figures in all their finery, poised spin to the antique original, drawing upon ideas that, in

Left: William Blake, Europe Supported by Africa and America. Hand coloured Sandro Botticelli, Engraving, 1445-1510. published in 1976, La Primavera, in A Narrative c.1482. of a Five Year Florence, Expedition against Galleria degli the Revolted Uffizi, Tempera Negroes of Surinam on wood panel, by Capt. John 203 x 314 cm. Stedman.

© 2016. © 2016. Christie’s Photo Scala, Images, London/ Florence - Scala, Florence. courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali Right: Sokari Douglas Camp, 2015. Collage forEurope Europe Supported by Africa and America.

Dutch Shell, moved in to exploit them commercially. Few in the Following the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, in early in a flourishing world of plenty seemed compelling. Predictably, earlier times, would certainly have been heretical. Since the west are familiar with the on-going drama that scars the account 2014, Douglas Camp’s immediate response was to produce however, no sooner did Sokari begin thinking of rebirth and fundamental elements of male and female relationships survive of the mismatched interplay of power and poverty played out a difficult series of works exploring the human aspects of the renewal, of flowers and Spring, than incongruous thoughts of - necessarily intact - in the multicultural present, other avenues in south-eastern Nigeria over the intervening five decades. epidemic, recording the cost in life and spirit to those caught sweets, new cars, materialism and the clash of cultures quickly open up for exploration in this very different Internet age of Sokari’s experience of history in her homeland sharpened her in the path of the unseen menace. News images – for Sokari, joined in the ‘conversation’ stream she describes as constantly global economies. Therefore, taking a leaf from Botticelli’s own keen eye for such contrasts and developed her relish for the a frequent source of visual stimulus – of medical aid workers, filling her head while she works. revisions, Douglas Camp breathes new life into these antique ironic twist that informs all her work. Therein lies the source dressed in full-body protective clothing, treating sick and dying forms. This she achieves by moving between painting and of her instinct to acclaim bravery in the face of tragedy and patients, to her suggested scenes of medieval conflict. With Sokari Douglas Camp’s reformatting of the antique story of sculpture, marking a radical stylistic transition between the her insistence on celebrating whatever small caches of hidden a second home in Italy, Sokari’s head filled with associations Venus presiding over the Bower of Love offers ample opportunity two and three-dimensional approaches. Next, she deconstructs beauty she can uncover in a world overwhelmed by pollution, linking these contemporary scenes to those medieval paintings to recast the formal elements of the old myth by dressing it and refashions the legend in metal materials appropriate to the poverty and disease. Her ongoing artistic journey has taken of pestilence and battle often found in Italy: Botticelli’s drawings in clothing more intelligible to contemporary audiences. Few present age. Most importantly, however, using insights derived

4 5 Sketches for particular emphasis on its value as the significant vehicle of attentions charms us precisely because of its restraint. The matching the gele headdress. Much attention has been given Blind Love cultural transmission. Sokari’s figures dressed in identifying asymmetric power of Zephyros swooping on a gust of wind to recreating the architectural effects of the arch, or apse, that and Grace, 2016 and clothing are less vulnerable to misinterpretation than their from above has been equalised and, borrowing a leaf from lends definition to the figure in Botticelli’s painting and links Primavera, 2015. predecessors, and in her modernised version of the ‘exchange’ Botticelli’s book, Sokari makes the suitor’s honeyed words her directly to the Christian figure of Mary, Queen of Heaven. that occurs between the three continents, subtle shifts have been figuratively transform into flowery leaves of golden speech. The Douglas Camp has created the structure behind her main figure introduced to imply that the imbalance and exploitation of young woman gently inclining her head to offer an inviting ear by cutting open and expanding two recycled 42-gallon steel former times is at last, finally beginning to be redressed. suggests her acceptance of his tender whisperings. In another drums to approximate the frame of an arch. By cutting through nuanced association between the lovers and the protective grove the silver lining of the oil barrels’ inner skin, camouflage In the small steel work, Posing with a Gun (2015), the lone, male where secretly they meet, the young lovers’ headdresses reprise patterns of positive and negative space create complex effects figure in contrapposto stance is taken to be Mars rather than the foliage patterns of the Spring that surrounds them. Love, that branch upwards to create the aura of the wooded apse. Just Mercury, his long, curved sword having been swapped for a in any place or time and in any society should be as sweetly as Botticelli concentrated his chiaroscuro efforts around Venus’ Kalashnikov on a shoulder sling. In all other respects, the figure intoxicating as this image suggests, and the golden fruit hanging head, the overhanging branches are, here, hung with green reaching up towards the notional trees behind is a fair copy of above their heads implies the ripeness of fulfilment. Oranges foliage created by reversing the drum material’s turquoise outer the Botticelli work. The nickle-plated work, Prick Gun (2016), are, traditionally, symbolic of virginity and fertility, but we skin. The effect is charged, a controlled explosion of light and hammers home the more serious message of contemporary may also convert these bright perspex shapes into the Food dark, red upon green, and the armed cherub breaks from the concerns, as both sword and staff of office are now transformed of the Gods by reading them as ripe persimmons. Mirroring forest shade like light emerging from the dark restraining clouds. into sinister modern weapons. The cloth draped across his the voluptuous hanging fruit, the repetition of softly rounded shoulder has been ‘Africanised’ and the ensemble completed shapes: eyes, cheeks, breasts and lips - all promise fruition. The It is to this reredos, surrounding the central figure, which the eye from the imprint of her own Kalabari culture, and welding new by a brimless kufi hat. The impact of this piece rests on its young girl’s half-hidden nipples, traced with delicate finery, repeatedly returns. Oil barrels, in metric tonnage extracted and elements onto the core components, she ‘Africanises’ the debate underlying commentary about the power vested in young males display a sensitivity of touch - astonishing in steel - of which shipped, define the fundamental indices by which we estimate thereby adding exciting new vistas of wholly contemporary with firearms. Here, the gun as phallic power object tells of the Botticelli himself would rightly have been proud. our wealth on the planet today. Yet that oil, poisoning our lands relevance. The results, when seen in context together as in this burdens falling on any society where semi-automatic weapons and our skies, we know is running out. In her mind’s eye, Sokari first exhibition, constitute a stunning tour de force. become commonplace objects of desire. We see how the The Primavera (2015) figure is a virtuoso piece revealing Douglas Douglas Camp makes a grasshopper leap to link in Botticelli’s contemporary paradigm shift attracts to itself associations that Camp at her finest. This adaptation of Botticelli’s graceful Flora The Birth of Venus. She conflates this red Grace/Venus here with The small piece Three Graces (2015) is the most faithful reworking move the discussion beyond simple issues of love and fertility figure enhances our understanding as to how her descendants that other naked Venus rising unsullied from the waves, borne of Botticelli’s original as a metal sculpture and demonstrates to encompass much more threatening implications. These might appear in the present day. This is an energetic African landwards on a scallop shell. Using the recycled metals and precisely the kinds of differences involved in moving from murderous weapons in the wrong hands blight communities goddess strewing flowers about her with élan. Attired in a heavily form of these oil barrels to surround her clothed African queen, two-dimensional paint to metal-work in the round. Examining with deadly conflict. The background historical context refers embroidered African ‘lace’ robe - itself an exercise in skilful Sokari imaginatively places her standing against the icon of a another major sculpture of the same period, Europe Supported by to armed militia groups in the Delta from 2003 onwards – working with a plasma cutter - the rich fabric and gele headdress powerful multi-national group that continues to this day to deny Africa and America (2015), we recognise elements of the ‘Three emerging in part to oppose the state-backed violence practised in which this queen is wrapped are covered in a profusion of any responsibility for the oily, black swamps polluting the Niger Graces’ projected onto an image borrowed from William Blake. against them - which quickly descended into cyclical vendettas metal flowers painted in bright acrylics. The illusion is almost Delta and for the displaced souls and the myriad ruined lives. The Abolitionist Blake’s allegorical etching presents the white of terror and intimidation. We have seen all too often images of complete down to the wreath that ornaments the wrap on her Furthermore, since this contemporary redressing of the ancient figure of Europe supported by two darker figures personifying AK-47s being fired aloft in victory celebrations, and we cannot head and the garland encircling her neck. However, the gaudiest Greek myth is sculpted in the round, we can peek behind her the continents of Africa and America. Here, in the conventional view this sculpture – and its telling title – without concern. colours amongst the flowers betray, by their mechanical forms, work to see another of those ironic twists in which Sokari so manner, the three figures are barely adorned, except for beads, Nigeria, today, is awash with guns, from the ‘licensed’ weapons their less than natural provenance. One gradually distinguishes delights. The company logo proudly displayed on the emptied garlands and bracelets. Sokari’s main revision is to clothe these of the Nigerian military and the dreaded Mobile Police Force the toy motorcars lying hidden amongst the flowers, and as oil barrel spells out the word R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N. Someone figures in a variety of fabrics that denote the material styles to the ‘illegal’ guns in the hands of paramilitaries of all stripes, soon as the eye notices one imposter, others quickly appear. has taken an oxy-acetylene torch and clinically sliced through of the different continents. The inspiration for these changes including the Islamic fundamentalist group, Boko Haram, using Perhaps new cars do represent the flowering tip of our modern the steel and lettering to coin the provocative nonce word came from an image of three Nigerian women sumptuously them to kidnap and rape schoolgirls and intimidate, by terror, technological civilisation. But there’s a deeper note of ecological Re.|.eV-O-L-U-T-I-O-N. outfitted for a wedding, each wearing a distinctive combination the local communities. unease underlying Sokari’s world-view evident, here, in the of wrap, bodice and headdress. The subtle implication is that erosion of distinction between objects of the natural world © Gerard Houghton, 2016 dressing both defines and displays culture. As Sonya Clark Such contentious issues are calmed, however, in the delightful and those of unnatural genesis. If this were a Greek myth, such indicates, when it comes to African cloth, the material is the Lovers Whispering (2016) that harks back to Whispering Blowing hybridity, indiscriminately scattered about, would foretell the 1. Sonya Clark, quoted by El Anatsui in Nsukka – A Place to hide: Towards a conversation with message. Botticelli was also aware of the critical importance of (2015) a sister piece in nickel-plated steel. This impressive advent of peculiar fruit and troubling consequences. El Anatsui, Atta Kwami, El Anatsui Gawu, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, 2003, p.32 clothing. Best-known for his new-born, naked Venus, few realise work reprises, in a more gentle form, the interaction between 2. Botticelli and Treasures from the Hamilton Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, 18/2/2016 ~ she is actually on the point of being covered with a sumptuous Zephyros and Chloris, the nymph whom he seized and The final figure that completes the tableau was finished only 15/5/2016 and Botticelli Reimagined, Victoria and Albert Museum, 5/3/2016 ~ 3/7/2016 cloth to hide her nakedness. Furthermore, the only artist whose impregnated. In the Greek myth, retribution was made and recently, in early 2016. In Blind Love and Grace (2016), Venus is 3. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower, From, The Poems of Dylan Thomas (New Judgement of Paris breaks with convention to present Venus, Juno the expectant mother honoured as his wife. Yet the promptings envisioned with Cupid, the son of her long tryst with Mars, Directions Publishing Corp.NY, 2003) and Athena, not as naked but fully dressed, was Botticelli. The of lust still exercise society’s ability to constrain the simmering flying overhead. The graceful lines of Quattrocento clothing 4. Ovid, Fasti 5. 193 importance of cloth fabrics in denoting status and wealth is energies of youthful passion. Sokari’s version of a young man have been reformed into a beautifully embroidered gown common throughout West Africa, and Kalabari culture puts softly blowing his love-song into the ears of the object of his of heavy African ‘lace’ overlain by a draped vermillion cloth

6 7 Primavera, 2015. Steel, gold leaf and acrylic paint, 201 x 72 x 162 cm.

Europe Supported by Africa and America, 2015. Steel, abalone, copper gold, copper leaf and petrol nozzles, 200 x 181 x 93 cm. Blind Love and Grace, 2016. Mild steel, acrylic paint, aluminium gold and copper leaf, 278 x 203 x 135 cm. Sokari Douglas Camp completing work on Blind Love and Grace, 2016. Mild steel, acrylic paint, aluminium, gold and copper leaf, 278 x 203 x 135 cm. Photo: Jonathan Gree, 2016. Lovers Whispering, 2016. Steel, gold leaf and perspex, 138 x 140 x 71 cm. Three Graces, 2015. Steel and slate, 46 x 31 x 31 cm.

21 Prick Gun, 2016. Posing with a Gun, 2015. Nickel-plated steel, Steel, 69 x 55 x 39 cm. 133 x 41 x 31 cm. Red Grace, 2016. Steel and acrylic paint, 81 x 52 x 30 cm. Yoruba Lady; Green Kalabari Lady, 2008. Tassels, Pink Shawl, 2008. Steel and acrylic paint, Steel and acrylic paint, 50 x 17 x 18 cm. 50 x 17 x 18 cm. Sokari 1994 Urban Walk, Barbican Centre, Museum of 2008 Dialogue of Cultures, ARTCO Galerie, London, UK Aachen, Germany Douglas Camp C.B.E. 1993 Steel Clothes and Ornamentation, Salon d’Art Contemporain Africain, Brussels, Belgium Redfern Gallery, London, UK ARESUVA, African Regional Summit and Born 1958, Buguma, Nigeria. 1992 Urban Women, South Bank Centre, London; Exhibition on Visual Art, Abuja, Nigeria Sue Williams, London, UK Black Womanhood, Hood Museum of Art, education 1991 Market People, Chelsea Arts Club, Pittminster Dartmouth, New Hampshire; Davis Museum and Studio, London; Taunton, UK Cultural Centre, Wellesley, Massachusetts; 1983-86 MA Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London 1990 New Work, Sue Williams, London, UK San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, 1980-83 BA Hons Sculpture, Central School of Art and 1988 Alali, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; City of California, USA Design, London Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, UK Design Without End: The Essential Art of 1979-80 California College of Arts and Crafts, 1987 Echoes of the Kalabari, National Museum of African African Textiles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oakland, USA Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA New York, USA 1987 Sculpture in collaboration with Sekiapu Dance The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles/Recent Art, Troupe, Africa Centre, London; Royal Festival Grey Art Gallery, New York University, USA selected solo shows Hall, London; Commonwealth Institute, London; Auf Augenhöhe-Blicke auf Kunst und Kultur aus Afrika, Museum of Mankind, London, UK Stadtische Galerie im Park, Viersen, Germany 2016 Primavera, October Gallery, London, UK 1985-88 Alali, October Gallery, London; Ikon Gallery, 2007 Africa Select I, ARTCO Galerie, 2012 All the World is Now Richer, Upper Waiting Birmingham; Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery; Herzogenrath, Germany Gallery, The House of Commons London, UK Dorman Museum, Middlesborough, UK Remembering Saro-Wiwa: The Living Memorial, It’s Personal, Tiwani Contemporary Gallery, 1984 Artist of the Day, Angela Flowers, London, UK Goldsmiths, London, UK London, UK 1982 Alali (Festival Time), Africa Centre, London, UK Alternative Narratives, The Alpha House, 2010 First Man, Potters Field Commission for London, UK Southwark Council, London, UK 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Relative Pelican: Installation of Steel Sculptures, Stux selected group shows In and Out of Africa, with ARTCO Galerie, Gallery, New York, USA Haus Der Volker (HDV), Schwaz, Austria 2009 Pain and Paradise, Kunstverein, Aalen, Germany 2013 Sokari Douglas Camp CBE - Manuela Sambo, ARTCO Terre Noire, Musée Maurice Denis, Saint- 2008 The Pleasure of Seeing You: Sculpture and Galerie, Herzogenrath, Germany Germaine-en-Laye, France Fabric Patterns, Lethaby Gallery CSM, 2012 Sculptors’ Drawings and Works on Paper, Pangolin From Outside, All Hallows-by-the-Tower, Whispering Blowing, 2015. London, UK London and Kings Place Gallery, London, UK London, UK Nickel-plated steel, Strength of Feeling, New Art Exchange, 2011 As it Is! Contemporary Art from Africa and the Diaspora, Freedom: Slavery Past and Present, Morley College, 70.6 x 50.9 x 20.6 cm. Nottingham, UK Mojo Gallery, Dubai, UAE London, UK 2007 One Day Exhibition: Resistance and Remembrance Environment and Object: Recent African Art, ARTFAIR 21 with ARTCO Galerie, 1807- 2007, The , London, UK Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Herzogenrath, Germany All the World is Now Richer, Harewood House Skidmore College, New York, USA 2006-07 Trienal de Luanda, multiple locations, Trust, Harewood, Leeds, UK Fantastic Creatures, The British Museum Luanda, Angola The World is Richer, Wallspace, All Hallows on the International Touring Exhibition, Ulsan Museum, 2006 Afrika! Afrika!, Munich; Berlin, Germany Hall, London, UK Ulsan, South Korea Chichester Festival, Chichester, UK 2006 Sweeping, Camberwell College of Arts, 2010 Modernities + Resistances/To All the Breathing of the SD Observatorio, IVAM (Institut Valencia d’Art London, UK World, Third World Festival of Black Arts & Modern), Valencia, Spain 2005-06 11th Commandment Sculpture Tour, Peckham; Cultures, Dakar, Senegal Sokari Douglas Camp | Nicole Guiraud | Bexley; Enfield, UK 2009-10 Identity and Self-Fashioning 1965-2009, Neuberger Marcia Wok Kure | Louzla Darabi, Art Society Neue 2004 Sokari Douglas Camp, Galerie Peter Herrmann, Museum of Art, New York, USA Galerie Landshut in cooperation with Berlin, Germany BM Treasures Exhibition, Madrid, Spain Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 2002-03 Imagined Steel, The Lowry Arts Centre, Henn Art Galerie, Maastricht, (Government Center for Political Education, ; Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno; 2009 In the Light of Play, Durban Museum, Durban, Foreign Ministry), Landshut, Germany Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester; Derby Museum South Africa Remembering Saro-Wiwa: The Living Memorial, and Art Gallery, UK Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa Arnolfini, Bristol, UK 2000 Echolot, Galerie Peter Herrmann, Islands and their Worlds, Parc de la Villette, 2005-06 Retour au futur’ l’art de l’Afrique noir, Stuttgart, Germany Paris, France Patrimoine Culturel et Actualité, Collection 1999 Knots of the Human Heart, Morley Gallery, Kréyol Factory, Parc de la Villette, Paris, France Elmer, Luxembourg London, UK A Celebration of British Sculpture, Harold Martin Africa Screams, Museum der Weltkulturen, Black History Month, Maritime Museum, Botanic Garden, University of Leicester, Frankfurt, Germany London, UK Leicester, UK Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo- Sokari Douglas Camp: Church Ede, National Museum Festival culturel panafricain d’Alger (PANAF) 2009, Kuti, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, Barbican of African Art, , Algiers, Algeria Art Galleries, London, UK Washington DC, USA Roots and More: Journey of the Spirit, Artists Selection, Peg Dollies on the Move! Brewery Arts, 1998-99 Spirits in Steel: The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade, Africa Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands Cirencester, UK American Museum of Natural History, Now We Are Ten, Campaign for Drawing, various Personal Selection, Brewery Arts, Cirencester, UK New York, USA locations across UK 1996 Steel Stories, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK 2005-06 Kijken zonder grenzen, Hedendaagse Kunst in het 2000 Distinguished Identities: Contemporary African 1993 Unilever Recent Acquisitions, Unilever House, 1984 Textiles Making and Meaning, Brixton Art Gallery, Afrika, Museum de collectie Valt en verder, Portraiture, Staller Centre for the Arts, State London, UK London, UK Afrika Museum, Belgium University of New York at Stony Brook, USA 1992 Art for a Fairer World - Oxfam 50th Anniversary Graham Park Festival, Graham Park Library, 2005 Black President, The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo- 1999-00 Tarble Arts Centre, Eastern Illinois University, Touring Exhibition, UK London, UK Kuti, Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati, Charleston, USA 1991-93 Africa Explores - New and Renewed Forms in 20th African Music Village, Commonwealth Institute, Ohio, USA Transatlantic Dialogues - Contemporary Art In Century African Art, New Museum for London, UK Ground Force – Africa Garden, Endemol, UK and Out of Africa, Auckland, New Zealand Contemporary Art, New York; University Art 1983 Amy Sadur Friedlander Memorial Art Fund, Production for BBC, The British Museum, Arche, Kunstgebaude im Schlosshof Bodenburg, Museum, Berkley; Dallas Museum of Art, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, UK London, UK Bodenburg, Germany Dallas; St. Louis Museum of Art; Corcoran New Contemporaries, ICA, London, UK Music in African Fine Art, Galerie im Waschhaus, Expo 2000, Hanover, Germany Art Gallery, Washington DC, USA; Ludovic Christie’s Inaugural Show, London, UK Africa Festival, Potsdam, Frankfurt, Germany Black History Month, National Maritime Forum, Aachen, Germany; Espace Lyonnaise Sculptural Drawings - Ruskin College, Oxford, UK Africa Screams, Kunstverein Aalen/Rathaus- Museum, London, UK d’Art Contemporain, Galerie, Aalen, Germany Still Form, Bright Line, Canary Wharf, Lyon, France; Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona, 2004-05 Africa Screams, Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, Austria London, UK Spain; Tate Gallery, Liverpool, UK awards 2004 Montigny-Dak’Art, Le Grand (Y) Off, Belgium Women to Women, University Art Gallery, Indiana 1991 The South of the World, Galleria d’Arte At Home with Art, The Lionel Phillip Collection, State University, Terre Haute, USA Contemporanea, Marsala, Sicily 2008 Governor, University of the Arts, London The Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, UK 1999 The Shape of the Century, Salisbury Festival, Art ’91, Islington, London, UK 2007 Vice-President Kalabari Union DACS 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Mall Galleries, Salisbury and Canary Wharf, London, UK Two Man Show, Marcus & Marcus Gallery, 2007 Culture and Heritage Award - The 4th Annual London, UK Arts Council Collection, National Institute for Amsterdam, Netherlands Black Business Award, UK Insights, National Museum of African Art, Medical Research, London, UK 1990 JAPE (Japanese Association for Promotion of 2006 Honorary Fellow of University of the Arts, London Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA Les Champs de la Sculpture No.2, Champs Creative Events), Tokyo, Japan 2005 Awarded CBE Africa Screams, Das Bose in Kino, Kunst und Kult Élysées, Paris, France Art ’90, Flowers East, London, UK 2004 Finalist for Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, 1998-00 Devious Devices - An Exhibition of Automata, Art ‘90, Sue Williams, London, UK London

Bayreuth, Germany Croydon Clocktower, London; Wolverhampton Rainforest Festival - The Arts for the Earth 2000 Commonwealth Grant Photography & design by Jonathan Greet 2003-04 4th Plinth (Nominee Exhibition),The National Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Museum of Science Exhibition, Barbican Centre, London, UK 1983 Princess of Wales Scholarship and Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, UK & Industry, Manchester; Birmingham Museum Five Contemporary Artists, Redfern Gallery, Henry Moore Bursary 2003 Exhibition of Contemporary African Art, The and Art Gallery, Birmingham; Newport Museum London, UK 1982 Saatchi & Saatchi Award Bagagehal, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Art Gallery, Newport; Crafts Council Gallery, Contemporary Art Society Market, London, UK 1981 Amy Sadur Friedlander Prize Royal Academy Summer Show, London, UK London, UK Small is Beautiful, Angela Flowers, London, UK Independence, South London Gallery, 1998-99 Global II, Addison Wesley Longman, Essex, UK 1989-90 Time and Motion, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; London, UK 1998 Body & Soul, Stadsgalerij, Heerlen, City Art Centre, Edinburgh; The Minories, Just Like a Fish in Water, Kunstverein Bad The Netherlands Colchester, UK selected collections Salzdetfurth, Bodenburg, Germany Das Vielfache Echo, Stuttgart, Germany 1987 Conceptual Clothing, Ikon Gallery, Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo- Around and Around Europe, Africa and USA, Galerie Birmingham, UK American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA Kuti, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Peter Herrmann, Germany Performance in Art/Art Performance, British Museum, London, UK New York, USA British Figurative Sculpture Part 2, Flowers East, Castle Museum, Nottingham, UK Bremen Museum, Germany Africa Past, Present and Future, Westbourne London, UK Springing to Life, Manchester City Art Gallery, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Spain Gallery, London, UK Kleinplastiktrienalle, Fellbach, Germany Manchester, UK Citibank Corporation Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany Small is Beautiful, Flowers East, London, UK Influences, South London Art Gallery, London, UK Fitchburg Art Museum, Boston, USA Small is Beautiful XXI, Flowers Central, Forja el Espacia, Centro d’Arte Moderno, Las Palm Trees, West African Music Village, Kew Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada London, UK Palmas de Gran Canaria; Vencia, Spain; Gardens, London, UK Horniman Museum, London, UK 2002 See the Talent; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery Callais, France 1986-87 From Two Worlds, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Leicestershire Education Authority, UK Touring, Brighton, UK 1997-98 National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan London; Fruit Market Gallery, Leicestershire Museums, UK DAK’ART 2002 La Biennale de l’Art African 1997 Havana Biennale, Havana, Edinburgh, UK Minneapolis Museum of Art, USA Contemporain, Senegal 1996 Die Andere Reise (The Other Journey), Kunste 1986 In the Eye of the Sun, Dowse Art Museum, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan The Bridge, The Morley Gallery, London, UK Hallie Krems, Austria Lower Hutt, New Zealand Skidmore University, New York, USA The Commonwealth 2002 and Beyond, 1995-96 Sculpture in Paradise, Chichester, UK Five Festival Sculptors, Stoke-on-Trent Museum Standard Charted Bank, London, UK Commonwealth Institute, London, UK African Metal Work, Crafts Council, London, UK and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Encounters with the Contemporary, National An Inside Story, African Art of our Time; Setegaya MA Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK Institution, Washington DC, USA Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Art Museum, Tokyo; Tokushima Modern Art The National Garden Festival, Unilever, London, UK Washington DC, USA Museum; Himeji City Museum of Art; Koriyama Stoke-on-Trent, UK Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, UK 2001-02 Encounters with the Contemporary, Smithsonian City Museum of Art; Marugame Genichiro Contemporary Art Fair, Covent Garden, St. Thomas’s Hospital, South London, UK National Museum of Art, Washington, USA Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art London, UK Michael Graham-Stewart, London, UK Sainsbury/African Galleries, The British Museum, (MIMOCA), Gifu, Japan 1985 Visual Aid for Band Aid, Royal Academy of Arts, Collection Hans J. Bogatzke, Herdecke, Germany This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition London, UK 1995 Around and Around, Duala, Cameroon London, UK Collection Artur und Heidrun Elmer, Aalen, Germany The Artist and the City, Centre de Contemporània 1994-95 Another Country, Centro Atlántico de Arte Artists Against Apartheid, Royal Festival Hall, International Finance Corporation, World Bank, Sokari Douglas Camp de Barcelona, Spain Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria London, UK Washington, DC, USA Sense of Occasion – In association with 1994 Figure and Fantasy Sculpture, Canterbury, New Horizons, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK Craftspace Touring , Birmingham, UK Kent, UK Contemporary African Art, The Learning 2000 Hearst Gallery, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, 1993-94 Contemporary Art Society Market, London, UK Material Centre, Highbury, London, UK California, USA 7 April - 14 May, 2016 at October Gallery, London October Gallery 24 Old Gloucester Street London WC1N 3AL Publication © October Gallery & contributors, 2016. [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may Tel: + 44 (0)20 7242 7367 be reproduced or used in any form without the permission of the publishers. www.octobergallery.co.uk Tues - Sat 12.30 - 5.30 pm or by appointment