In March of this year, Otis Quaicoe traveled to Australia on a research trip ahead of his solo show at COMA Gallery in Sydney. During his stay in Sydney, one of the biggest cities in the country, he noticed similarities in the infrastructure of the country and his birth country, Accra, the capital of Ghana in Africa.
On reading about the country, Quaicoe realized that the two nations “were all colonized by the British,” he told Observer. That realization led to visits to some museums in Australia to learn more about its history in general, particularly that of the Indigenous people. These were followed by conversations with artists, mainly those who are members of Indigenous communities.
On his return to his base in Portland, Oregon, in the United States, the Ghanaian-American artist read more about Ghana and Australia’s histories. The result is a series of paintings featured in “Fragments of History,” which opened on August 30. The show explores the lasting impact of Colonialism in Accra, an example being lawyers and judges wearing wigs in court, and referencing that with, as the artist put it, “the Indigenous people who were also kind of enslaved just like Africans were also enslaved” in the Australian context of the show.
Gamil Means No, 2024, is an oil, gold leaf and mixed media on canvas portrait of Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist and curator Dennis Golding. The slogan is said to be a show of defiance in the face of previous and ongoing attempts to take over neighborhoods and lands of Indigenous people. Man In Blue II, an oil, metal chain, fabric applique and dyed feather on canvas painting, shows a Policeman in a bright blue official uniform wearing a helmet with the inscription ‘Ghana Police.’ While the protective gear is ostensibly for the local serviceman, it somewhat resembles what British officers wore during the colonial era in the West African country.
“It just reminded me of how we talk about freeing ourselves from colonialism, yet there are certain things that we have adopted,” Quaicoe said. “We still have adopted a certain part of history that was left behind that other countries are just fighting to get rid of.”
Quaicoe’s exhibition is one of several colonialism-themed shows that have opened around the world in recent months. In June, Iraqi-American artist Rheim Alkadhi’s first U.K. show, “Templates for Liberation,” exploring the effects of Britain’s colonial rule over Iraq in the present day, opened at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.
In July, Jala Wahid’s ‘Pretend History,” a show described as examining the “intimately violent relationship between colonialism, archaeology and appropriation through the lens of the British empire and Kurdish history,” opened at the Niru Ratnam Gallery in London. At Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh is “Songs about Roses,” the first solo show of Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama in Scotland. The show opened in July and uses labor about railway construction during British colonial rule in 1923 in what was known as Gold Coast, now Ghana, to examine issues including nationhood and global exchange.
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On September 19, the Columbus Museum of Art in the United States will host the final iteration of “Fragments of Epic Memory,” which “seeks to create a multifaceted dialogue around the histories of decolonial struggles in the Caribbean” and their effects in the present day” according to a brief.
While shows about or artists presenting work about colonialism have generally been a part of art calendars, what’s the reason behind the current phenomenon? There are equally important issues to discuss. The consensus, however, seems to be that this is the time to talk about colonialism with a lot more enthusiasm than before, even though these discussions have been ongoing for a while.
Quaicoe thinks that the murder of George Floyd has helped “uncover a lot of things, a lot of realizations” [and has] “catapulted a lot of conversations going on around the world.”
“Every season has its occurrence. I think it’s that season to address issues that have been waved off in some quarters. Many institutions are finding ways to atone for their forebears’ past atrocities in the name of colonialism,” added Nigerian-American multidisciplinary artist Victor Ehikhamenor.
As “a student of African literature,” as the artist refers to himself, reading books by the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka Soyinka, Bessie Head, Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Mariam Ma Ba meant that he had access to the “copious documentation of the struggle to regain physical and mental freedom from colonizers.”
That knowledge is incorporated in Ehikhamenor’s practice, which includes installations and sculptures made using materials such as rosary beads to create figures and scenes that tell stories of his homeland, Nigeria, and Africa in general, referencing religion, history, culture and colonialism.
In the exhibition “Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space” in Accra at Gallery 1957 are his artworks The Monarch II, 2024, Ododo in Royal Palace Grounds, 2022, and A Brand New Chief, 2021. These pieces “straddle the duality of my cultural heritage and the harsh intersection of colonialism,” disclosed the artist. The rosaries he used “depict royalty of Benin Kingdom, in modern-day Nigeria and invariably creating a confluence from two opposite rivers of knowledge,” he added.
In recent years, calls for the Western world to return objects plundered during the colonial era have become much more prominent, decades after the requests were first made. In a way, that is symbolic of the impact of colonialism centuries after it ended, officially at least. As stated by Quaicoe, the court system in Ghana, which is also seen in many British-colonized African countries, is representative of that colonial era. The official languages of most African countries are French, English, German and Portuguese.
Some argue that there is no reason for these colonialism-themed exhibitions, given that the effect of colonialization is all around the countries and continents that were colonialized. Are these shows necessary at all?
Quaicoe thinks these shows are “important,” pointing to artists still performing and writing songs about the need for “emancipation” and dealing with the mental effects of colonialism. He hopes shows like his will help “normalize conversations,” leading to people revisiting history and wanting to learn more about the issue even though remnants are still very present in former colonized nations.
As Quaicoe shared and Ehikhamenor’s beginnings show, artists find information from various sources to present what the latter refers to as “understandable yet nuanced interpretations of the past during exhibitions.” He added that visual arts mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography and films “do not have the manacle of a language barrier to be understood.”
What role can exhibitions play in expanding the audience’s knowledge and understanding of colonialism and its impact? “It’s a valuable means of discovering and disseminating knowledge about colonialism to a larger number of people unlike, say, a novel written in Portuguese or French by an African,” concluded Ehikhamenor.