Cairns Art Gallery : REFRAMING THE EXOTIC
Using photographs by artists Sammy Baloji and Ade Adekola,some superimposed on cities and monuments in other parts of the world , this exhibition examines the impacts of economic imperialism and globalisation and the devastation and consequential effects on the natural resources , environment and black communities .
The above panel is a view of a Chinese owned mine in the Congo on the left attached to a European alpine scene , used to decorate the shacks of miners .The interior decorations include Chinese produced posters from the local supply store with idyllic pastiche landscape posters or idealized cities .Some miners display postcards and other images from the Belgian-colonial era , which includes a comparison between the exploitative roles of China today and European powers in earlier days .
Baloji's work is said to show the tense boundary between the paired images expressing the global disparities in, and exploitation of ,resources as well as the chasm between the ideal and the real .
Adekola ,who trained as an architect in London, returned to Lagos,Nigeria .His art practice is driven by his interest in cultural preservation and cultural transformation . Through his deep knowledge of the African experience in a contemporary world he reimagines alternate futures .His Ethnoscapes :Icons as Transplants series consists of 80 portraits that explore the paradoxical traits of social networks, globalisation and issues of identity in images .
In these images he superimposes contemporary Lagos streetscapes over backdrops of highly recognisable images of major American ,Asian and European cities. Thus creating hybrid streetscapes and portraits filled with unnerving visual tension between simultaneously existing worlds .
