This text is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2022 concern of AnOther Journal:
“I encountered Scott Burton’s work via an exhibition held at Kasmin Gallery in New York in 2015. After I walked in, a gallery consultant was sitting on one of many items, Rock Chair [1981] – an enormous boulder that had been minimize with such precision to carve out just a little seat. What was surprising is that her sitting on it didn’t take something away from my expertise of that present as artwork. That was an essential second for me – it solidified the concept that I might make work that existed inside the context of artwork with out it being marginalised as design. I’m at all times making an attempt to blur the classes. Think about what individuals deem African sculpture – it’s really African design. These artefacts had non secular features inside the communities they had been extracted from. They weren’t made for pure contemplation, however they are often contemplated. How do you make a piece that may exist in each worlds with out one overpowering the opposite? That’s what I’m making an attempt to do.”
It’s not unusual to stroll right into a Dozie Kanu exhibition and discover “somebody taking a Zoom name on one of many stools or mendacity on the ground studying a guide”, the Nigerian-American artist says. His confrontational, intractable objects straddle the boundaries of nice artwork, purposeful furnishings and sculpture with an unlikely ease, the works inviting guests to spend time on and round them. Within the huge warehouse the place he lives and works within the Portuguese countryside, Kanu has discovered a form of freedom from the expectations of the business. This autumn, items made there’ll seem at Neuer Essener Kunstverein in Essen and Galerie Francesca Pia in Zurich. Be at liberty to sit down.
This story options within the Autumn/Winter 2022 concern of AnOther Journal, which is on sale internationally now. Purchase a replica right here.
