For my further artistic practice I would like research the accelerating effect the implementation of digital technology and algorithms has on an individual.
For my further artistic practice I would like research the accelerating effect the implementation of digital technology and algorithms has on an individual.
Artworks and Processes
Artworks and Processes
Artworks and Processes
Artworks and Processes
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Ich bin ein Textabschnit. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt.
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Ich bin ein Textabschnit. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten. Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt. Klicke hier, um deinen eigenen Text hinzuzufügen und mich zu bearbeiten.Ich bin ein Textabschnitt.
Michael Armitage
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© Michael Armitage, Mangroves Dip (2015)
“Spending time in this way with a subject can create a deep empathy that for me is at the heart of what I make, which is that we are all fundamentally the same.”
– Michael Armitage
the identity of a place
signifiers of western art history
looking from the outside
challenge cultural assumptions
regional mythology
“My paintings play with the perception of a place, they deal with the identity of a place—the place being home—and I try to build a language in the work that includes signifiers of western art history, where foreign places are exoticized and dumbed down. I use that and turn it on itself. I have to chuckle to myself when someone says it doesn’t look authentically African, because the idea of looking from the outside is really important in the work, as are those tensions between local culture, history, and art history.”
– Michael Armitage (in Jansen, 2016)
Michael Armitage is a Kenyan-born artist whose colourful, dreamlike paintings are “loaded with provocative perspectives that play with visual narratives and challenge cultural assumptions, exploring politics, history, civil unrest and sexuality.” (RA, 2021)
His large-scale works draw on contemporary events, combining these with Western painting motifs. To the eye trained in European art history, Michael Armitage's paintings are alluring and strangely familiar, like a déjà vu experience. He is questioning Kenyan culture and finds his impulses in the local and with the Kenyan audience in mind.
(HDK, 2021; Jansen, 2016; RA, 2021)
“Interwoven with reality are allusions to regional mythology, symbols, and traditions. Armitage considers the works to be ultimately optimistic; in the conditions of contemporary culture, images fuel actions.” (Jansen, 2016) Armitage doesn’t consider himself an activist.
“I’d never claim to be an activist for any issue,” he says. “It’s very important to me in developing my practice that my works are relevant in the cultural space, and I try to find a way for the paintings to have a place within society at home. I am not a politically motivated artist but my paintings consider different social and cultural issues that I come across: They are questions I ask myself, questions I pose to culture at home and to the viewer.” (Armitage in Jansen, 2016)
Fotos I took of Armitages works at the Venice Biennale 2019
Michael Armitage on 'May You Live In Interesting Times' | White Cube
The Imitation of Life:
Melodrama and Race in the 21st Century
Michael Armitage, Kampala Suburb (2014); © Michael Armitage. Images © White Cube (Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd).
Michael Armitage, Kampala Suburb (2014); © Michael Armitage. Images © White Cube (Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd).
The essence of Imitation of Life—a melodrama about the effect of society's rigid structures on women and specifically the black Afro-American experience—was re-presented as a group exhibition of works from the last 15 years. (E-flux, 2016)
Michael Armitage, Kampala Suburb (2014)
The painting shows two men in embrace and references the structure of a hieroglyph from ancient Egypt, which is one of the oldest two-dimensional art forms from the continent. In the background, a frieze depicts an execution in Somalia. It speaks to the widespread notion that homosexuality is “un-African.” He has not encountered these issues directly himself, but is reflecting on conversations he had about this issue. “My instinctive reaction was to tell him (a friend asking about the gay scene in Nairobi) to keep a low profile. Later, I thought about what I had said, and that I never question these attitudes at home.” (Armitage in Jansen, 2016)
“Although this was not LGBTQ related, I wanted the risk of violence to the couple to be in the painting, as members of the LGBTQ community have been repeatedly harassed, attacked, mutilated, or killed for who they are. It was important to have a sense of the risk of this private and basic intimacy within the painting, as the hostility towards the LGBTQ community extends into their private space—the current situation [in Kenya] is that neighbours who suspect men or women of being gay will attack them or accuse them of committing homosexual acts that are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.” (Armitage in Jansen, 2016)
Michael Armitage, mydressmychoice (2015)
This painting refers to the assault at a bus station in Nairobi in November 2014, where a woman was stripped and molested by a group of men because of the clothes she was wearing. When video footage of the assault went viral, it sparked demonstrations in the capital. Here the woman strikes a classical pose reminiscent of traditional western nudes. “This is my culture that does this to women – do I have to own this too as part of my culture?” (Armitage in Jansen, 2016).
“I don’t imagine paintings to change laws or culture overnight, but I think there’s a quiet space for contemplation in the presence of a work that is intimate and unique. Spending time in this way with a subject can create a deep empathy that for me is at the heart of what I make, which is that we are all fundamentally the same.” (Michael Armitage in Jansen, 2016)
References
E-flux (2016) Announcements: Imitation of Life: Melodrama and Race in the 21st Century. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/45148/imitation-of-life-melodrama-and-race-in-the-21st-century/#:~:text=HOME Manchester is delighted to,by Omar Kholeif and Sarah (Accessed: 04.05.22)
HDK (2021) Michael Armitage. Paradise Edict. Available at: https://hausderkunst.de/ausstellungen/michael-armitage?locale=de (Accessed: 04.05.22)
Jansen, C (2016) Painter Michael Armitage Captures the Tragic Realities of the LGBTQ Community in Africa. Available at: https://caveartfair.tumblr.com/post/146064317947/painter-michael-armitage-captures-the-tragic (Accessed: 04.05.22)
RA (2021) Michael Armitage, Paradise Edict. Available at: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/michael-armitage#:~:text=Michael Armitage is a Kenyan,history%2C civil unrest and sexuality (Accessed: 04.05.22)