Otobong Nkanga interview | Artes Mundi, Cardiff | 25 October 2018

The artists shortlisted for Artes Mundi 8 aim to stir our consciences on everything from abuse of the Earth’s resources to the creep of surveillance and the steel industry’s impact.
Nigerian-born, Belgium-based Otobong Nkanga (b1974), has long been exploring - through drawings, installations, performance, photographs and sculptures - the links, both fragile and enduring, that connect humans to the land around us via the resources we use and abuse.
For Artes Mundi 8, she is showing two large works, set within a strangely somber and meditative space at the far end of the gallery, with its own pyramidal roof. Placed on a black carpet, the contemplative quality of these pieces induces an instant hush in the visitors. We see a circle within a circle of elemental items within her sculptural piece Manifest of Strains (2018), occasionally hissing loudly (to represent air) and heating up (fire). This is framed by a large tapestry, titled Double Plot (2018).
She talks to Studio International about her inspirations for these pieces, and her enduring preoccupations with the reciprocity or interconnectedness of emotion and action around the world.
Interview by VERONICA SIMPSON
Filmed by MARTIN KENNEDY