Otobong Nkanga’s Exhibition There is No Such Thing as Ground: The World is Always in Motion
© Otobong Nkanga, There's No Such Thing as Solid Ground. Courtesy: Martin-Gropius-Bau.
Mankind’s time on Earth can be equated to that of a blink of an eye. However, as improbable as that may seem, humans have set in motion detrimental changes in order to make the Earth habitable for some of us but not for all of us. How does one imagine the world without the growing number of extinct species? Different plants and animals are the makeup of our world. Where would we be without the bird and bees? Banana trees? And, even I hate to admit it, mosquitoes?
It should come as no surprise that, despite our design of what we think the Earth should look like (i.e., drawing borders and putting up walls), the Earth in it and of itself is fluid— deserts become oceans, oceans dry up, mountains do move, whole continents silently sink, rocks fold, volcanoes roar alive, volcanoes lay dormant, and the ground quakes….
© Otobong Nkanga, There's No Such Thing as Solid Ground. Courtesy: Martin-Gropius-Bau.
Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian Artist, is showing a solo exhibition at the Gropius Bau in Berlin entitled There’s No Such Thing as Solid Ground. The exhibition attempts to mend the relationship between land and man, and, in doing so, she mends the relationship between man and man.
Our relationships with each other can be better understood if we look at the landscape. Berlin would know. It’s only been 29 years since the dismantling of the Berlin wall, which divided the city due to socio-political and economic issues stemming from World War II and inflamed by the Cold War.
In the Installation entitled Taste of a Stone, you are invited to walk over the pebbled ground, maybe sit on a boulder, and stare at the large textile work of a disembodied plant. Perhaps the uneasy walk over the pebbled ground, the view of the disembodied plant, and the apocryphal immobility of your seat (i.e., the boulder) speaks to the myth of solid ground and the arrival of the Anthropocene.
© Otobong Nkanga, There's No Such Thing as Solid Ground. Courtesy: Martin-Gropius-Bau.
The Anthropocene is the latest geological epoch characterized by how significantly human activity has impacted Earth’s ecosystems. Essentially, humans have unearthed Earth in order to legitimize economical systems and pit one over the other. This goes without mentioning our impact on outer space and future plans to terraform Mars.
Nkanga’s work brings our awareness to the effect we have in the world. The human hand holds great power and great responsibility. No matter where you are in the world, Earth is your home. Most importantly, what Nkanga intends to do is change how we philosophize the Earth—not an evergreen Earth but one in constant motion.
Get tickets at berlin.de. There’s no such a thing as Solid Ground runs through the 13 of December, 2020, at Martin-Gropius-Bau.
