KEN NWADIOGBU – Ubuntu
FUMI NAKAMURA – Look Toward the Future, but Not So Far As To Miss Today
On view: March 6, 2021 – March 27, 2021 | Schedule your visit here.
EXCERPT FROM KEN NWADIOGBU INTERVIEW
What is the inspiration behind this latest body of work? What themes were you exploring?
These works were created between 2020 to 2021. The question was: what did it feel like to be Nigerian during this time and what do I think we can do to make it better.
I experienced a lot of threatening events around me and could connect it with what was happening around the world. The hatred, the war, division and violence. I got really interested in making direct statements through my works concerning this. This gave rise to UBUNTU, an African philosophy made popular by Late Nelson Mandela. The philosophy of togetherness. “I am because we are”. I believe there’s a lot of good we can do if we are United.
Full interview here
EXCERPT FROM FUMI NAKAMURA INTERVIEW
What is the inspiration behind this latest body of work? What themes were you exploring?
I’ve been learning and trying to incorporate my own culture into my work more. I moved to the United States when I was eleven. I stopped learning Japanese language, culture and history since then, instead, I tried to focus on learning English and American culture to fit in. Growing up in the United States made me question my existence, ethnicity and culturally more, and I was often being asked “which country is home to you?,” which troubled me a lot.
Now I am in my mid-thirties, looking back on all the work I made and working through many hours of psychoanalysis, that question no longer troubles me anymore, but it rather made me curious about my own existence, concentrating on being alive and what to look forward to in the future.
Full interview here
