Luther Konadu
Figure as Index
About the Artwork
For Luther Konadu, the photograph does not freeze time; photography conducts and magnifies time in nonlinear directions. His widely lauded images expand the photographic moment, across works that are modular and recombinant. Shot largely in the artist’s studio among friends, Konadu’s photographs – all titled Figure as Index – stand alone or together, in innumerable possible configurations that teem with activity and hints of narrative, never settling into a static reading. The particular installment of Figure As Index on view at The Polygon is exceptional in its multiplicity. It draws us into the artist’s milieu, with hands reaching through and across multiple layers of photographic surfaces, while a stray piece of tape breaks the fourth wall, pulling the viewer closer to Konadu’s studio processes. To look at this image is to regard an artist actively at work, a rare feat in photography that evinces Konadu’s remarkable talent.
Figure as Index
2015 - ongoing
Framed archival Inkjet on semi-gloss or pearl or satin photo paper
Edition of 5 + 1 AP
25" x 32"
Estimate: $4,500
Courtesy the artist
About Luther Konadu
Luther Konadu (b. 1993) is an artist and writer based in Winnipeg (Treaty One). He is the editor of Public Parking, a publication for critical thought and tangential conversations, as well as the founder of the exhibition space Blinkers. His writing has appeared in Canadian Art, Aperture, BlackFlash, Akimbo, and Border Crossings. His studio activities are realised through photographic processes that give way to sculptural elements, acknowledging the legacies of the photographic medium as an interpretive site for generating new conventions and expanding fixed narratives. His photographic work has appeared in The New Yorker and FOAM Magazine. Konadu received the 2019 New Generation Photography Award and was one of the recipients of the 2020 Sobey Art Award. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in the touring exhibition As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic and his major solo exhibition, No Further, currently on view at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina.
