a so-called archive, Onyeka Igwe

8 Sep-17 Oct 2021

Onyeka Igwe, a so-called archive, 2020

Overview

LUX is pleased to announce an exhibition of moving image, sound and ephemera by Onyeka Igwe showing at LUX, Waterlow Park from 8th September to 17th October 2021.

With a forensic lens, Onyeka Igwe’s a so-called archive interrogates the decomposing repositories of Empire. Blending footage shot over 2020 in two separate colonial archive buildings—one in Lagos, Nigeria, and the other in Bristol, United Kingdom—this double portrait considers the ‘sonic shadows’ that colonial images continue to generate, despite the disintegration of their memory and their materials. Igwe’s film imagines what might have been ‘lost’ from these archives. It mixes the genres of the radio play, the corporate video tour, and detective noir, with a haunting and critical approach to the horror of discovery.

a so-called archive depicts the former vaults—along with their histories of hoarding, monetisation, documentation and now abandonment—as metonyms for the enduring entanglements between the UK and its former colonies. These sites were and continue to be home to purulent images that we cannot, will not, or choose not to see. -Mason Leaver Yap

Igwe’s first solo exhibition at LUX a so-called archive, includes the film of the same name, as well as an outdoor audio piece and ephemeral display in the library expanding on the archives interrogated in the film. A collective reading event will also take place on Saturday 16th October – details to be announced. Audio described and captioned screenings will take place daily.

Learn more: lux.org.uk/event/onyeka-igwe-a-so-called-archive

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