Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1963 Oku-Edu, Nigeria

Year of Migration to the UK: 1996

Other name/s: Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé

Biography

Photographer, film maker and installation artist Oladélé Bamgboyé was born in Odo-Eku, Nigeria on 15 October 1963 He was brought up by his great-grandmother on his mother's side, a devout Muslim, and his grandfather on his father's side, a practicing Christian, being exposed from an early age to differences in the belief systems of his elders. He moved with his family to Glasgow, Scotland in 1975, where he studied chemical engineering at Strathclyde University (1981–85). He subsequently began to explore the concept of self through photography in the late 1980s, using himself as the subject. In 1992 he was awarded the Richard Hough Prize for Photography, the highest honour of its kind for photography in Scotland.

In 1992, Bamgboyé returned to Nigeria for the first time since his initial immigration to Scotland. This visit marked a major turning point in his practice, as it prompted a deeper understanding of his place within Nigerian/Yoruba society and landscape, while also highlighting his foreignness as someone who had spent a significant portion of his life in the West. The experience allowed him to reconnect with his roots and gain new perspectives that would inform his later work. Bamgboyé returned to England in 1994, where he completed an MA in Media, Fine Art, Theory and Practice at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London (1996–8). His practice, encompassing a variety of media including traditional photography and videoworks, is concerned with the embodiment of diaspora, racial stereotypes, deconstruction of anthropological myths and geography of the body, drawing inspiration from the history of African studio-portrait photography. In Birds of Paradise (1989), a triptych of large silverprints, Bamgboyé offered a tropical Bird of Paradise flower with the central image of a nude, white female. Shot out of focus and printed with low contrast, the work dealt with the intricacies of interracial attractions. Through nude self-portraits, he has sought to examine the complex relationship between black identity and a predominantly white society. His work has often contained overtly erotic imagery, as in The Lighthouse - Revisited No 1-6 (1991–96). The series consisted of six black and white photographs displayed in rough wooden frames, suspended from a wooden coat hanger, which reflected the domestic nature of the subject. Investigating the representation of Black masculinity, in each photo Bamgboyé and a woman were shown nude and in different poses that could be interpreted as resembling crucifixion, restraint, or violence, while also having a sexual undertone. Sexual identity was made ambiguous and interplayed with an aggressive confrontation on the part of the artist to challenge myths traditionally attached to the concept of the Black male in the West. These themes were further explored in films. Spells for Beginners (1994) was a poignant exploration of the breakdown of Bamgboyé's long-term relationship with a woman. The film employed a mix of confessional dialogue and fleeting images of their home to convey the disintegration of their bond. The installation, of which this film was a part, was designed to look like an ordinary living room and was 'typical of Bamgboyé’s technique of adumbrating his imagery with sculptural motifs that emphasise his themes’ (Falconer 2001). American-Nigerian artist Odili Donald Oditi noted that ‘Oladele Ajiboye Bamgboye's ability to avoid objectification and commodification remains astounding. As an artist, Bamgboye is an extremely sophisticated man who is able to communicate his personal travels in life without pandering to cheap sentiment and an exoticization of himself’ (Oditi 1998).

Bamgboyé's work frequently addresses issues of migration and cultural displacement. In Homeward: Bound (1995), he presented a dual-screen video installation that contrasted scenes of him returning to his native Nigeria with shots of him in Scotland, where he had settled. These contrasting images reflected his interest in representing the clash between Britishness and the experience of being a racial ‘other’, as well as the complex dual consciousness of immigrants. Bamgboyé's Celebrate series (1994–97) documented his dance movements through a luminous white environment streaked with crinkled streamers. Through multiple and shifting exposures, the setting became indeterminate and almost hallucinatory. Unlike his earlier works, these scenes evoked a joyous energy similar to Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica's Parangolés from the 1960s, where performers danced in the streets, dressed in bands of colour. However, Celebrate retained the focus of Bamgboyé's earlier works, exploring the challenges that cultural displacement posed to identity.

Bamgboyé’s work has been exhibited both in England and internationally. His group shows included Freedom at Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum (1995), alongside Avtarjeet Dhanjal, Mona Hatoum, and Keith Piper, and New British Art – Intelligence at tTate Britain (2000). Solo shows have included Photographs at Glasgow School of Art (1985), The Unmasking - Part I, Slade School of Art (1998) and Introspect, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (2003). Oladélé Bamgboyé’s work is not currently represented in UK public collections.

Related books

Okwui Enwezor, Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity - Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection (Göttingen: Walther Collection, 2010)
Okwui Enwezor, Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, exhibition catalogue (Göttingen: International Center of Photography, 2006)
David A. Bailey, Ian Baucom, Sonia Boyce, Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2000)
Valentijn Byvanck, 'Oladélé A. Bamgboyé: Interviewed by Valentijn Byvanck', in Laurie Ann Farrell and Valentijn Byvanck, Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora (Snoeck, New York, Gent: Museum for African Art, 2003)
Morgan Falconer, ‘Bamgboyé, Oladélé Ajiboyé’, Grove Art Online, 29 September 2001
Hans Ulrich Obrist, ‘Interview with Oladélé A. Bamgboyé’, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, No. 13, Spring/Summer 2001, pp. 86-91
Denise Carvalho, ‘Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé’, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, Spring/Summer 2001, p. 128
Tracey Warr and Amelia Jones, The Atist's Body (London: Phaidon, 2000)
Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé and Witte de With eds., Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé: Writings on Technology and Culture (Rotterdam: Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, 2000)
Virginia Button, Ralph Rugoff, Charlie Gere and Charles Esche, Intelligence : new British art 2000 (London: Tate Gallery, 2000)
Adrian Searle, ‘Art: Getting into the Thick and Thin of It’, The Guardian, 20 July 2000, p. 16
John McEwen, ‘The Arts: Another Bullying dicTate from the Commissariat Art’, The Sunday Telegraph, 16 July 2000, p. 9
Holland Cotter, 'Art In Review: Oladele Bamgboye', The New York Times, 12 May 2000, p. 36
Peter Weiermair, Prospect: Photography in Contemporary Art, exhibition catalogue (Frankfurt: Edition Stemmle, 1996)
Through Photography: Oladele Ajiboye Bamgboye, Lorna Bates, Matthew Dalziel, Brian Jenkins, Vaughan Judge, exhibition catalogue (London: Third Eye Centre, 1989)

Related organisations

Richard Hough Prize for Photography (recipient)
Slade School of Fine Art (student)
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (student)

Selected exhibitions

Introspect: Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (2003)
Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, Bede’s World Museum (2001)
New British Art – Intelligence, Tate Britain (2000)
Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, Anne Faggionato Gallery, London (2000)
The Unmasking - Part I, Slade College of Art UCL, London (1998)
Contemporary Art: the Properties of Oladele Ajiboye Bamgboye, Alexander Brener, Friedrich Buhl, Susanne Clausen, Christian Hilt, Pawlo Kerestej, Rainer Werbner Fassbinder, 30 Underwood Street Gallery (1998)
Self-Evident, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (1995)
Freedom, Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum (1995)
The Hair or the Man, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow (1994)
A Cry for Africa, Corridor Gallery, Fife (1994)
Group exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1994)
Through Photography: Oladele Ajiboye Bamgboye, Lorna Bates, Matthew Dalziel, Brian Jenkins, Vaughan Judge, Third Eye Center, Glasgow (1989)
Group exhibition, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Scotland (1989)
Group exhibition, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh (1987)
Nine Photographers at the Glasgow Print Studios, Glasgow Print Studio (1986)
Photographs, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow (1985)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Oladélé Bamgboyé]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Oladélé Bamgboyé artist