Abraham Oghobase: Life of Mine

The work of Nigerian-born artist Abraham O. Oghobase meditates on the legacies of mining across Africa, as well as the resulting displacements and migrations of people. His visual montages lift schematic diagrams of metal-refining processes from A Text-book of Rand Metallurgical Practice, a handbook published in 1912 that heavily informed early extractive industries in South Africa and elsewhere. Presenting these drawings outside of their original context, and super-imposing them upon images of his own body, Oghobase studies the mechanisms of colonial exploitation while also visually disassembling them.

The Polygon Gallery

May 5 - July 30