International Artist-In-Residence
New Works 99.3

Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé

London, England

September 09–October 17, 1999

about the artist

Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé was selected for ArtPace’s International Artist-in-Residence Program by curator and cultural critic Okwui Enwezor, the Artistic Director of Documenta XI and Adjunct Curator at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Since graduating as a chemical engineer in the mid-1980s, Bamgboyé has successfully sustained an independent practice spanning the fields of fine arts, philosophy, cultural theory and exhibition curating. Since the mid-1990s, his work has explored a range of issues surrounding representation, including black masculinity, sexuality and African art. His visual installations have taken many forms, integrating video and photography and moving between documentation and performance. An ongoing interest in technology, particularly in relation to African art, has driven his most recent work, including his presence on the web (www.digitalportfolio.co.uk/artists/bamgboye).

Born in 1963 in Nigeria, Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé lives and works in London, England, where he studied at Slade College of Fine Art, University College. His work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Slade College of Art and Gallery One, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal. Group exhibitions have included In/Sight: African Photographers 1940-present at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the 1997 Johannesburg Biennial, South Africa; Documenta X, Kassel, Germany; and the 1998 Dakar Biennial, Senegal.
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about the project

Bamgboyé’s new work at ArtPace operates in the realm of interactive software, which viewers can access via computer workstations placed in the gallery. The artist’s work began with research on a bronze bust known as the “Queen Mother Head,” from Benin, Nigeria. Dating from the late 15th to early 16th century A.D., the bronze is considered one of the best examples of its type and is now housed in the Liverpool Museum, which continues to generate controversy.

Bamgboyé became fascinated by the technology and modes of production surrounding the bronze – from the iron plants in Africa where the raw materials were culled, to the ceremonial rituals for which the object was intended, to its transformation into a cultural artifact preserved in a museum, to the mass duplication and commodification of copies circulated in the form of souvenirs and, finally, to its current manifestation as an image on the Internet. In this most recent mode, the authenticity and ownership of the object – once held exclusively by the museum – are rendered ambivalent, as the technological innovations allow anyone to access, copy, manipulate and redistribute images of the “unique” object.

This interest in technology, representation and ownership led Bamgboyé to develop a digital 3-d model of the bronze “Queen Mother Head” for an Internet-based work in which audience members can enter into the matrix of production and reproduction described above. By spinning, dragging, magnifying, copying and otherwise altering the object, the viewer exercises control, and even ownership, over the object in a way that is precluded within the traditional museum framework.

As museums increase their presence on the web through virtual tours of collections, issues of accessibility, uniqueness and ownership become increasingly complex. Bamgboyé’s project at ArtPace heightens the artist’s concerns about cultural commodification and the impact of technology. In the coming world of virtual experience though technology, what will an authentic cultural experience be?

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