When Peckham’s South London Gallery (SLG) first attempted to host Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh more than a decade ago, the institution (to the surprise of very few people with a green passport) had visa problems. Ogboh was refused entry to the UK and in 2014 completed an artist residency with the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin. This summer, however, Ogboh will join other Nigerian and British-Nigerian artists at the SLG, including the Turner Prize-nominated Yinka Shonibareinstallation artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi, multidisciplinary artist Victor Ehikhamenor and sculptor Ndidi Dike—for the show Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes.
The exhibition explores the relationship between the UK and Nigeria, in particular the cultural exchange between mainland Nigerians and British Nigerians. It also marks the launch of a residency swap between the Shonibare team Guest Artists Space Foundation (GAS) in Lagos and SLG, in a partnership that gallery director Margot Heller hopes will lead to a long-term relationship.
The curator of the exhibition, Folakunle Oshun, also founder of the Biennial of Lagos, argues that Lagos and Peckham (sometimes referred to as Little Lagos because of its Nigerian population) should be seen as benchmarks for the immigrant experience. “I think it’s more about migration, about embodying a place and how migrants of any culture and society will go to another part of the world and pitch their tent…and recreate rituals that will remind them of home,” he says.
by Yinka Shonibare Diary of a Victorian Dandy 2:00 p.m. (1998)
Courtesy of the artist
Basically, the show explores the flow of people and culture in all directions. Ndidi Dike, known as Oshun, is a metonym for this exchange. Born in London, she returned to Nigeria before returning to the UK for her secondary education. She graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and is now based in Owerri. Oshun is thrilled that audiences see the contrasts between how different generations of immigrants relate to their British and Nigerian identities. There’s Shonibare, who is 60, and his niece Temitayo Shonibare, who is in her 20s, he said.
However, “immigrant” is a loaded term, and audiences may be keen to see how the show tackles that alongside more upbeat expressions of identity. When he arrived in the UK, Oshun noted that his visa designated him as a “creative migrant” (not an expatriate, as a Brit would be referred to in Nigeria). Indeed, ten years later, the SLG Conservatives are still struggling with visa issues. The GAS partnership saw London-based artist Chiizii complete and return from her residency in Lagos. However, Nigeria-based Christopher Obuh hasn’t even started his own yet. It is a testament to the necessity of the exhibition – a belated acknowledgment of this historic link and its impact in both countries – that its curators are undeterred.
• Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the LakesSouth London Gallery, July 5-October 29
