Joseph Obanubi Nigeria, b. 1994

Obanubi considers his work to be a visual bricolage - a (re)construct of different subjects taken from their original context into a new one. His creative ideology stems from concepts of delusion, surrealism, futurism and experimentation, providing an alternative way of seeing regular things.

Joseph Obanubi participated in an artist residency with the Arthouse Foundation in 2020. His residency project, titled How close can it get?, interrogates the limits of closeness in relation to dense urban populations. Inspired by the movements of people within the city of Lagos, Obanubi imagines both real and imagined spaces. He references currencies, numbers and analytical data, overlapping different sources and modes of technological information. Combining texts, writings and inscriptions using an embossing technique, along with drawings, digital collage and stamping, he maps the city from a nuanced perspective. Obanubi points to how people’s experiences of personal space are dictated by socio-economic conditions and wealth inequalities.