It seems rather arbitrary to pick out the African artists from ‘The Ungovernables’, the New Museum’s triennial show. The first thing that appears (if, like me, you start on the fifth floor and work your way down) is a neat stack of Zimbabwean billion dollar bills, put there by Thai artist Pratchaya Phinthong. The show brings together thirty-four different individual artists and collectives. All the artists were born in the 70s and 80s, but beyond this the curation refuses to place the diverse works in any categories.

Two Egyptian artists were, for me, among the show’s highlights. Against much of the Egyptian contemporary art recently discussed here, this is art which scrupulously rejects ‘revolutionary kitsch’. I’d seen pictures of Iman Issa’s work before – colourful shapes like wild prostheses out of a Mondrian painting – which didn’t communicate much. But in the white cube gallery space (see above) the clear lines and planes of these inscrutable monuments have a peculiar impact.

It’s difficult to know what to say about Hassan Khan’s film “Jewel” (still below) – which shows two men dancing to a Sha’bi soundtrack – it’s great. Seriously, hypnotically playful.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s portraits achieve a drama which reminds me of Manet’s ability to illuminate darkness with a point of light.

On the ground floor the work of the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Project covers one wall. We are keen to see more of this ambitious organisation, recently established in Lagos. See their blog on OccupyNigeria here.

In the same room, Nana Oforiatta-Ayim’s film ‘Nowhere Else But Here’ presents a writerly account of a roadtrip with the Invisible Borders group:

Further Reading

Coming home

In 1991, acclaimed South African artist Helen Sebidi’s artworks were presumed stolen in Sweden. Three decades later, a caretaker at the residential college where they disappeared found them in a ceiling cupboard, still in their original packaging.

Imaginary homelands

A new biography of former apartheid homeland leader Lucas Mangope struggles to do more than arrange the actions of its subject into a neat chronology.

Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.

The complexities of solidarity

Assassinated in 1978, Henri Curiel was a Jewish Egyptian Marxist whose likely killers include fascist French-Algerian colons, the apartheid South African Bureau of State Security, and the Abu Nidal Organization.

From Naija to Abidjan

One country is Anglophone, and the other is Francophone. Still, there are between 1 to 4 million people of Nigerian descent living in Côte d’Ivoire today.

De Naïja à Abidjan

Un pays est anglophone et l’autre est francophone. Quoi qu’il en soit, entre 1 et 4 millions de personnes d’origine nigériane vivent aujourd’hui en Côte d’Ivoire.