#larry achiampong

[khlur]

works from 'And I Saw A New Heaven' by Larry Achiampong

Exemplaris excomunicationis

Detestatio Sacrorum

Dominus regit me

(click/tap for better quality)

"As a starting point for the works in the exhibition, Achiampong has selected a series of typical religious posters from Ghana to paint over. Their plethora of graphic and immediate imagery draws on a pastiche of dated advertising styles and, in turn, so does Achiampong’s response. While the Golliwog or minstrel show character is an uncomfortably recognisable icon of Britain and America's colonial past, the immediacy of this image when reduced here to an internet style avatar, belies its complex and often obscured history. Other more subtle painted edits and editions amplify the way in which these works question, disrupt and take ownership of these problematic legacies by obscuring parts of the posters. The frame on the face of each panel is custom made by hand by Larry in a nod to the idealised story of Christ as carpenter vs the realities faced by many undervalued manual work forces today. The framing style is comparable with the kind found in the humble places of worship Achiampong experienced as a child — grand in form but with no pretence of gilding or hiding the knots — in other words, strangely honest."

- excerpt from the press release for And I Saw A New Heaven

[mhvarchive]

Larry Achiampong: Wayfinder

MK Gallery

15 October 2022 - 15 January 2023

900 Midsummer Blvd

Milton Keynes, MK9 3QA

British-Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong works in film, sculpture, installation, sound, collage, music and performance. His work draws on popular culture and his communal and personal heritage.

Included in his first major UK solo show to date is Achiampong’s debut feature length film Wayfinder, as well as a large presentation of his Pan African flags, life-sized Relic Traveller figures and Glyth collages. It will also reveal some of his influences from video games to the landscape paintings of JMW Turner.

Admission from free - £11.50

More details and tickets: MK Gallery

[miragestation]

Mirage Station playlist for August 2nd, 2023

1. Orkes Kroncong Bintang Nusantara “Putri Gunung” from Music of Indonesia 2:  Indonesian Popular Music:  Kroncong, Dangdut & Langgam Jawa (Smithsonian Folkways 1991) 2. 戸張大輔 Daisuke Tobari “02.43” from ギター Guitar (Bumblebee Records 1999) 3. Kiko Kids Jazz “Tanganyika Na Uhuru” from Tanganyika Na Uhuru (Mississippi Records 2021) 4. Rafiu Bankole and His Group “Sowemimo” from Ju Ju Roots: 1930's-1950's (Rounder Records 1985) 5. Yamoah’s Band “Cedi Special” (Decca 1966) 6. Larry Achiampong “Nkonyaa / Agyei “ From Meh Mogya (Sample Of Me) (Look Mama! Records 2011) 7. Nite Bjuti “Mood (Liberation Walk)” from Nite Bjuti Featuring Val Jeanty, Candice Hoyes & Mimi Jones (Whirlwind Recordings 2023) (bandcamp) 8. Ragnar Johnson & Jessica Mayer “Ommura Iyavati” from Bamboo Jews Harps from Papua New Guinea: Eastern Highlands and Madang (Ideologic Organ 2023) (bandcamp)

[abigailshorel6]

This exhibition follows the theme - No But Where Are You Really From? The responses explore “identity, origin, heritage, belonging, and what it means to be ‘from somewhere’”, say the organisers. The pieces I saw from this exhibition that I love were; Osman Yousefzada: 'More Immigrants Please' and 'op.x: Fragile'. I love that they both have a raw real feel to them using mediums to create them physically such as fragile tape. Making work physically is something i've been wanting to explore more especially since I love doing it in the 'Will it blend?' project. They both use mediums/imagery that link to there theme/identity which is what makes them work so well. This has made me think about my own project and how my visuals will link to my themes. As my project is centered around the media it will be important for me to use imagery related to this such as newspapers. For example, I am going to imitate type used in these to communicate my theme to the reader.

[radicalbotanicals]

Videogames as Simulation for Genetic Trauma

I have been a gamer my entire life, which is common for people of my generation, the medium growing and aging with us over the decades.   I remembered being 7 years old and my cousin thrusting a controller in my hand to play a game far too graphic and complicated for my underdeveloped mind to understand. The game in question was Resident Evil 4, an entry in several games following different heroes as they fight to survive against the failed experiments of a faceless corporation hell-bent on creating bioweapons without regard for how much damage they wreak on the world. Resident Evil is developed by Capcom, a Japanese company which would be intimately familiar with the themes of mass-destruction and body horror as is ever-present in Japanese culture for obvious reasons post-World War II. The ramifications of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have inspired Japanese media from Akira to Godzilla, and continues to influence creative works till this day as it shapes so much of modern Japanese identity.

It came as a surprise to me to come face to face with one of these games while experiencing Genetic Automata by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy at the Wellcome Collection this past week, particularly the 5th entry in the series which took place in a fictional state of Africa and featured zombie characters that unfortunately invoked a problematic racialised image that was immediately apparent to American audiences. Capcom tried to rectify the situation by adding zombies of different races to the hordes of NPCs, but the damage was done, and game was deemed “controversial” by news sources and players alike.  What we have in the second video series “A Lament for Power” is the tale of Henrietta Lacks a story that I was familiar with prior to viewing the video but was recontextualised by the visuals and thought-provoking statements of the video. Henrietta is speaking to us, sounding calm, but disappointed, as her very cells were used again and again and again for various scientific experiments that have borne much fruit and have saved countless lives. Her cells are perhaps the most unique in the world, as they can replicate infinitely. This is represented by a digitised blank city, slowly being enveloped by this massive black dome, her cells multiplying with no stop in sight. These sequences are intercut with the African zombies of Resident Evil 5 – diseased and malicious looking but being re-purposed to emphasise how black bodies are treated as fodder for our world’s betterment.  In Resident Evil 5, you shoot these NPCs, no questions asked, and their state is once again a sacrifice for the villain’s (a white man) “higher plan” which is to become a god. Both the hero and the villain alike both treat the NPCs the same, as insignificant, as a by-product, as a means to an end….which is eerily similar to how our real-life medical community has always treated black bodies, despite the reason being cited as “for the greater good”.

The other exhibition, Third World: The Bottom Dimension, was an interactive experience that spoke to the gamer in me, though it did not play by rules I was used to. A reality created with afro-indigenous experiences in mind, I found myself wading through a cold world where my character, an amorphous humanoid figure, was forced to repeat the same tasks repeatedly, harvesting crystals in a finite amount. I likened it to the destruction of Brazil’s beautiful lands and the colonisation of their culture into one streamlined and deemed “acceptable” by the hegemonic masses.  The fact that you are doomed to repeat the cycle, being asked “Have you seen everything?” made me believe the trauma was becoming ingrained, and recording it was like creating a digital memory of the very damage being done, uploaded to a shared neural network.

It was reminiscent of a project I had encountered back in Toronto for the ImagineNATIVE festival in 2018. I played several games featuring imagined realities based on indigenous myths, some stories retelling the trauma experienced by various peoples, one was an attempt to teach a new generation the Ojibwe language through interactive VR, a response again to the alteration and erasure of an entire people’s way of life, again inflicting a sort of lasting brand upon the very DNA of those shared peoples.

Genetic trauma is something we should continue to investigate, and I believe videogames are perhaps one of the best mediums to impart these experiences upon people. The interactive nature automatically puts the player in the position of both being in control and unable to fight against the outcomes programmed into the game. It creates a deep link between the characters and players that is hard to forget once the game ends. I can think of several games that already explore this topic, one being the Metal Gear Solid series, which was also part of Genetic Automata’s assemblage. It asks the question of what if one’s existence did not belong to them, instead as a tool to be used for the purpose of shadow organizations beyond their understanding in wars they have no choice but to fight in. What if you were the weapon, and your DNA was carefully cultivated as the clone of the perfect soldier? Not only that, but what if your max life was artificially meant to end before 40 years old? Again, coming from a Japanese game studio, you can see why so many creatives are asking these questions.

A meme describing the different soldiers pertinent to the series (Unknown source). The game is steeped in political conspiracy and meta-physical philosophy.

I think we will see more and more games of this type being developed, and the ability to remix existing content to recontextualize it such as seen in Genetic Automata, is a powerful tool indeed. The digital world acts as a simulation we can enter at anytime, a sandbox we can shape into empires and dystopias of our choosing.  I believe experiencing both ends of the spectrum is important, and I am perhaps a testament to how videogames have shaped my identity and made me question my own genetic trauma passed down by my indigenous ancestors.

[cultural-engineer]

Ph03nix Rising - The 3rd Son from Larry Achiampong on Vimeo.

HD Video, (2014) 8 minutes 11 seconds

[mckennacayden]

Best Of 2022: Artist Larry Achiampong's Life Of Nintendo, Creativity And Inspiration https://www.nintendolife.com/features/best-of-2022-artist-larry-achiampongs-life-of-nintendo-creativity-and-inspiration

[franhitzke]

Larry Achiampong (b. 1984, UK, British Ghanaian)

Larry Achiampong's work, 'Sunday's Best' is a moving image work that "highlights the artist's interest in the mutations of traditions and language that are birthed as a result of colonisation, and how they affect people today. In particular, the relationship with Christian imperialism and its impact on his tribe - The Ashanti." (Reference: https://www.larryachiampong.co.uk/projects/sundays-best)

This work interests me in how it is structured, the intense flashing of images layered over one another, the imagery of religion, the intensity of faith.

We see a little boy overwhelmed by it all and then we hear Achiampong's own account of his disparity between gods as a young boy, and his inability to understand his family's idealisation of a white man on a cross.

Faith is often passed on through families, their children indoctrinated into a church or belief system from as early as conception, and most certainly birth.

Ablution, in religion, a prescribed washing of part or all of the body or of possessions, such as clothing or ceremonial objects, with the intent of purification or dedication. Baptisms, naming ceremonies, circumcisions...the list goes on.

Thinking along the lines of religion and its role in abortion beliefs and laws, I'd like to create a moving image work that highlights the disparity between intense faith based beliefs over common sense, human rights and the how choice is essential to autonomy.

Religion filled a gap in society to educate society before society was educated. A lot of rules and laws in religion were common sensical at the time to keeping people policed within their own morality and their day to day activities. Sunday rest, so that people weren't worked to death. Why were certain foods disallowed, pork? It contains worms that are deathly - it was a safety measure. Society advanced but the texts didn't.

References:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2009, April 6). Ablution. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ablution

Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. (2012). Meaning, Mortality, and Choice: The Social Psychology of Existential Concerns (1st ed.). American Psychological Association.

[seafoamwordsdotart]

Week 11 – Artist – Choice

The first artist I chose is Jade Fadojutimi, a composer of color and space, as her biography on her website described. Which I think is an excellent way to describe her work. She's a very expressive artist with color, a theme that I can find throughout the various collections she's created. I'm unsure of the intention of her art, but I feel a lot of emotion looking through her pieces. I attached one of my favorites to the thread, and I think it's just amazing what someone can do just with colors.

The second artist I chose is Larry Achiampong. This artist uses different mediums than my Fadojutimi, like video-making and sculpture. They also enjoy using live performances and digital identities to create art.

Comparing Fadojutimi with my second artist, I see more of a storyline within their work. The titles of each piece describe what we see within their work of art, already telling us what to expect and what we might gather from seeing it. Even though Fadojutimi also names her work, there is more I'm able to gather from her paintings.

A Chaos in Theory

We Survive We Prosper

[mademoiselleclipon]

Larry Achiampong

[simichiamano]

Larry Achiampong & David Blandy Finding Fanon 2, 2015

[placidhousee]

Larry Achiampong: Pan African Flag for the Relic Travellers’ Alliance (2018)

Via https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/larry-achiampong-art-on-the-underground-roundel-redesign-for-african-diaspora-art-081019

[theartappreciation]

PAN AFRICAN FLAG FOR THE RELIC TRAVELLERS' ALLIANCE

[rrrauschen]

Larry Achiampong, {2014} Ph03nix Rising: The 3rd Son