« A Different Perspective », an independent exhibition by Ken Nwadiogbu to discover paintings, NFTs and several installations at Retro Africa Gallery Abuja until June 23, 2022.
While the United Kingdom has just declared in a sensational explanation the reclaiming of asylum seekers in Rwanda for processing, the movement has taken the spotlight as a serious and challenging issue of concern on the world stage.
While most (Western) media talk about the compromise of North/South vertical communications, the development of populations is primarily within the South, with Africa remaining the continent that provides the smallest amount of travelers in the world.
Two astonishing realities that the European press’s special treatment of African migrants and the inevitable desire of those countless Nigerians to leave their country keep thwarting and blocking our global ability to deal with this complex issue.
In energetic variety and simple structures, Ken Nwadiogbu fundamentally addresses this sensitive topic, inviting us to adopt new points of view. Using simplified cardboard boxes as striking illustrations of dark travelers, he disrupts the disposable nature of packages, highlighting the cycle of dehumanization at work in the government issues movement.
Like the boxes, the dark bodies were once crammed into ships and traded overseas. Today, these equivalent bodies pay fortunes to pile up in horrible pontoons, with the mad desire to arrive alive on the shore of a continent that continues to push them away. A curiosity that Ken Nwadiogbu addresses in his installation “Journey Mercies“.
Be that as it may, before investigating a given subject, Ken Nwadiogbu‘s specialty remains fundamentally audacious. Behind its attractive appearance, it is profoundly intelligent and proceeds from a deliberate desire to disrupt, trigger and enhance the view of the one who discovers it.
In the monochromatic optical illusion of his “Packages In Brown Skin” series, he provides us with recognizable snapshots of the normal Nigerian we regularly identify with; yet, in a similar development, he organizes the irruption of reality through the hyper-realistic and brave gaze of a third person peering through an outline cut from behind.
Full, but not fully installed to be seen, Ken Nwadiogbu‘s works scream without holding back for us to notice, and leave our brains meandering in the shoes of a stranger.
« A Different Perspective » is an encouragement to grasp and question our own perspectives on life and things. Combining several mediums, from huge monochrome deceptions to the installation of his fun cardboard boxes, Nwadiogbu pushes the boundaries of his art with dramatic organization, exploratory mainstream media recognition of the Lagos lifestyle, a rotating form mold, and the arrival of five dynamic and invigorated NFTs named “The Migrant,” fully supported by Nifty Gateway.
“The Migrant” is a collection of 100 NFTs. Delivered incrementally at the appropriate cost of 1 ETH, The Migrant NFTs are exceptional groups, with each piece sold with its pictured cardboard box design, to be transported to its essential buyer around the world. The Migrant is an important part of the Journey Mercies cross-reality project, which launched on the blockchain in November 2021, and has subsequently been showcased in the real world in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Nigeria, where it has received widespread acclaim.
Recognizing the need to broaden our perspectives, and expand our basic horizon, “The Migrant” aims to build critical thinking and accompanies it with an NGO that incites art education to push for a new stage that is to adopt a different point of view.
With this exciting mix of variety and structure, Ken Nwadiogbu offers us an extraordinary opportunity to take a step aside and examine our real factors, both global and individual, because for him, the value lies in the point of view.
