Nnenna Okore, Rope, 2006 (detail).
Newspaper.
Various dimensions. (Photograph by Jonathan Greet)
Emerging, young artist Nnenna Okore will be exhibiting new works in her debut London solo show.
A former student of El Anatsui, whose magnificent bottle-top cloths were the highlight of the 52nd Venice Biennale, Nnenna Okore also transforms discarded materials into cultural objects, forms, and spaces.
Her work often employs ordinary media like magazines and newspaper, which are disposed of in her current home the United States, but are considered usable commodities in her native Nigeria. By re-imagining everyday waste, as well as natural materials, Nnenna’s works consistently challenges environmental neglect, consumerism and globalisation.
This revitalisation, rehabilitation, and transformation of materials, makes Nnenna one of her generation’s most exciting and innovative artists working within the genre of urban recyclia.
Nnenna’s work was recently exhibited at Channel 4’s headquarters in connection with the Big 4 Project. In September 2008, her works will be featured in the inaugural exhibition Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
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