Bubblegum Club

Tag: contemporary African identity

  • Amarachi Nwosu – Dismantling Stereotypes and Blurring Racial Lines with Cinema and Photography

    Amarachi Nwosu – Dismantling Stereotypes and Blurring Racial Lines with Cinema and Photography

    Amarachi Nwosu is a Nigerian-American artist currently based in Japan. She creates works within a multitude of mediums which include video, photography and text. With her lens, a visual exploration of contemporary African identity and diversity takes place acting as both a representation and celebration of Blackness. “…If women of colour are not behind the lens then we are less likely to see women of colour cast in front of the lens and only through representation can we truly shape change in the spaces that need it so much.”

    Amarachi creates her work in various locations around the world. Her acute awareness of different energies and cultural representations within different regions of the world has led her to make creative choices in her shooting process that highlight the unique qualities of a specific region. Such decisions are discernible through her choice of colours, location, models and even the team she chooses to work with on a project. The artist believes that this approach to her projects results in a visual representation that possesses several dimensions.

    Traversing between art, fashion and documentary photography a human connection between herself and the people she photographs is imperative to her practice. This connection is cherished by the artist as she believes that in photographing people, she is telling their story as much as she is telling her own.

    With an already established name and client list, Amarachi has created work for adidas Tokyo, Vice Japan, Highsnobiety and her most recent show-stopping credit, Black in Tokyo. Black in Tokyo is a short documentary by Amarachi depicting the experiences of five people of colour who have moved to Japan from Eritrea, the United States and Ghana.

    The film explores the challenges of being black in Tokyo while simultaneously taking a closer look at the experiential opportunities that have helped expats of colour build successful businesses, careers and relationships. The documentary forms a part of Melanin Unscripted, a platform Amarachi created to blur racial lines and dismantle stereotypes by revealing complex cultures and identities from around the world.

    Her practice inhibited within the space of fashion takes on a multifaceted approach where Amarachi frequently takes on up to three behind the scenes roles in one project. She often acts as the photographer, creative director and stylist on a shoot, considering every detail of a project instead of just purely focusing on composition.

    Amarachi is a multifaceted creative expressing the lived experiences of contemporary Africans all over the world through her lens. Her work aids in blurring racial lines and dismantling stereotypes through exposing complex identities and cultures all over the world. Amarachi’s work is then a visual manifesto that indicates to her viewer that African identity is not linear or one-sided, and that narratives surrounding Blackness are complex and diverse.

    Watch Black in Tokyo below:

  • Vincent Michéa // celebrating black consciousness with the use of photomontage and pop art

    The artist within Vincent Michéa emerged when he moved from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal in 1986. Dakar, which has been called “the Paris of West Africa”, became heavily influenced by the Negritude movement after the nation obtained independence from France. Negritude was a black consciousness movement that aimed to counterbalance European colonial thinking by asserting pride in African cultural values. Paris became a meeting point for the African intellectuals that started the Negritude movement. The French educational system alienated them from their heritage so they united in the creation of a contemporary African identity through literature and politics. Senegal’s sovereignty was an organic moment for Negritude’s framework to permeate and heavily influence the physical and cultural architecture of the surrounds.

    Just once glimpse at Michéa’s works and it is obvious how deeply he was moved by the cultural rhythm that Paris and Dakar share. As Michéa said, “I paint the things that surround me, close to me, the within my sight: point of view in existential surroundings, consciously lived in but also consciously experienced.”

    After training as a graphic designer at the university of graphic arts and interior architecture (ESAG) in Paris, Michéa’s intent was to practice in Dakar. A year later and he had his first exhibition at the National Gallery of Senegal. Following this exhibition, Michéa assisted renowned graphic artist and photographer, Roman Cieślewicz for four years. Cieślewicz encouraged Michéa to pursue his career as a painter.

    Michéa’s works are riddled by Pop Art and feature the vibrant colours and hard edges of traditional West African textiles. He makes use of Ben-Day dots like Roy Lichtenstein in order to make his figures stand out from their surroundings. His works contain large areas of flat, unmoderated colour reminiscent of Ed Ruscha and early David Hockney and takes images of celebrities, like Andy Warhol.

    Michéa also makes use of photomontage. “I cut, I slick, I make incisions, I snip, I slash, I hack off, behead, I dismember…A table, scissors, some glue and images in shambles – Voila! The arsenal of a photomontage artist…Conceiving and manually producing photomontages with simple and common tools is a meaningful act that allows create sensitive images, charged with extreme tensions.”

    The glorification of Dakar’s past and the city’s contemporary allure is evident in all Michéa’s works and his closeness to the place, the people and the history may attribute to the effectiveness in which he captures the Senegalese. Despite his use of multimedia and his white gaze, Michéa manages to celebrate black consciousness and leave the vibrancy of blackness intact.