Abraham Onoriode Oghobase
Anatomy of Landscape - Jos, Self Portrait 01
About the Artwork
Anatomy of Landscape - Jos, Self-Portrait 01 (2018) is part of a series presenting a cross-sectional study of the artist's experiences in the Jos Plateau region in north-central Nigeria. The landscape’s profusion of residue from the mining industry, including bright blue tailings ponds that mark the topography, have laid the foundation for Abraham Onoriode Oghobase’s ongoing engagements with the histories, legacies, and consequences of resource extraction across the African continent. In this self-portrait, the artist appears to curl in a foetal position uncannily against a vertical wall. The ruined factory and stark blue sky echo the features of Jos’s intensively mined earth. The work excavates the metaphoric strata of the landscape, revealing multiple layers beneath the surface of Oghobase's personal encounter with Jos and its history of natural resource exploitation: bare grasslands and ancient rock formations indelibly scarred by human pursuits, past and present.
Anatomy of Landscape - Jos, Self Portrait 01
2018
Framed inkjet print on matte paper
Edition of 1 of 5 + 2 Aps
46" x 32"
Estimate: $10,000
Courtesy the artist
About Abraham Onoriode Oghobase
Abraham Onoriode Oghobase (b. 1979, Lagos, Nigeria) is a visual artist living and working in Toronto, Canada. In his photography-based practice, he questions systems of knowledge production, land, colonial history and representation by deconstructing traditional modes of making, and by experimenting with the narrative and material potential of images and objects. Oghobase’s work has been exhibited widely, including the recent solo exhibition at The Polygon Gallery Life of Mine. He is one of seven artists featured in this year’s New Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and was recently selected to participate in the Nigeria pavilion at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennial in 2024. Oghobase holds an MFA in Visual Arts from York University, Toronto.