Rotimi Fani-Kayode

I was thrilled to see that finally Rotimi Fani-Kayode was getting a proper showing in New York. This tribute to his photographic work is long overdue. Indeed he was seminal in his portraiture of black African homosexuality.

“The first solo exhibition in New York of photographs by the British-Nigerian artist, presents large-scale color and black-and-white portraits created in the late 1980s by Fani-Kayode, before his untimely death in 1989. Fani-Kayode’s images interpret and reveal sexuality across racial and cultural differences, vividly merging his fascination with Yoruba ‘techniques of ecstasy’ and homoerotic self-expression through symbolic gestures, ritualistic poses, and elaborate decoration.”

While Mapplethorpe’s neo-classical photographs of the 1980’s with their emphasis on a perfect timeless body have become by now the acceptable norm in the representation of homosexuality and homoerotic desire as an art form, Rotimi’s enigmatic, theatrical, “neo-romantic” images of the black body engaged in some mysterious ritualistic exercise have encountered a reluctant establishment on this side of the Atlantic in particular. I am reminded of Caravaggio’s depictions of male youth, which were perceived at the time as highly provocative in their rejection of all classical normative rules of representation.

Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989) was born in Nigeria in Ife, the Yoruba spiritual center, to a prominent family who were keepers of the shrine of Ife. Becoming political refugees his family settled in the UK and Rotimi went on to complete his education in the US at Georgetown University and at the Pratt Institute, finally returning to London where he worked until he died of AIDS at the age of 34.

Kobena Mercer in her essay Neo –Romantic, Afro-Atlantic: Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s Aesthetic Singularity describes eloquently his photographic work at the Project Space. .

“ In the luxurious darkness of the photographer’s studio, various young men have been adorned with flowers. Petals and leaves brush against their skin in an atmosphere of sensual calm, yet each figure is visibly agitated by strange gestures whose meaning is inscrutable. “Nothing to Lose” is a series of color photographs that communicates a passionate feeling for human beauty that is all the more vividly intense because of the imminent presence of death. Rotimi Fani–Kayode died in December 1989, having produced in the previous years a unique body of work that remains utterly original.”

This selection of photographs was taken from two bodies of work, Nothing to Lose and Every Moment Counts, which he did in collaboration with his partner Alex Hirst as part of two groups shows that dealt with the impact of AIDS (Bodies of Experience: Stories About Living with HIV and Ecstatic Antibodies).  Fani-Kayode embraced the subject fearlessly and without self-pity.

Leaving behind the more typical realistic documentary photographic tradition Fani-Kayode embraced at once the Yoruba ritual heritage and his sexual identity and turned to the more adaptive studio tradition with its potential for creating imaginary spaces. These images are mostly provocative not because of an overt sexuality, but more because in depicting a black male nude engaged in enigmatic rituals they become windows into the unknown: an intangible spiritual world where mysterious forces are at play and where spiritual and physical ecstasy merge provocatively.

These images are confounding. There is no obvious point of entry in Fani-Kayode’s fabricated world. While I feel drawn in by the theatricality of the composition, the rich and sensuous coloring, dramatic lighting and luscious flowers, leaves and feathers, I am unable to access the meaning. I feel ultimately kept at a distance.  Fani-Kayode deliberately aims to create a complexity in order to hold the viewer at bay. I am reminded of the tradition of the Yoruba masquerade rituals where the spirits of the ancestors are brought forth through the presence of masks and yet, at all time, are shielded from view. One does not enter their world.

A more comprehensive analysis that would take in account Yoruba rituals might give further helpful insight into the meaning of these images.

First I am thrilled that Artur Walther, a German collector who owns a very extensive collection of photography, and in particular African photography has decided to open this space in New York City / Chelsea, solely dedicated to African Photography. The satellite of a main exhibition venue in Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany, the project space is located at 526 West 26^th St. It is designed in a typical modernist fashion with pristine white walls, and includes a nice library space where you can buy Walther‘s scholarly publications. To my Westernized eyes shaped by the modernist aesthetic, the photographs look fabulous in that setting. But I can’t help thinking that there is something puzzling- might I say even inappropriate –  in the presentation of African photography in this modernist “white cube”. To me, Africa is colorful, chaotic, loud, and barely touched by Western modernism. That is one of the reasons I love it. It has its own sets of rules and traditions. Africa rebels against the stricture that the West continues to impose. I will venture to say that this exhibition setting is yet another colonizing act but hey, it looks good! And lets face it, there is no way around the authoritarian demands of Western modernism. So I  am immensely grateful for his project space.

The photo selection for the announcement and cover of the catalog is wonderfully stylish. Both photographs show a trio of young men looking out towards the viewer. The two groupings are equally self-conscious, keenly aware of their posture and appearance; Keita and Sanders capture the arrogance of youth in its new found identity.

Seydou Keita’s photographs are hung in the first part of the room and are striking by their theatricality. The carefully selected outfits are meant to convey social status, heritage, and tradition interplaying with modernity. They reveal the people’s playful sense of style, love of the accessory and decoration, and their sense of pride. Okwui Enwezor in speaking of Keita’s photographs describes that  “the use of props..can be understood as enabling the possibility of play, the idea of constructing an image of the sitter, and thus the myth of status, that may be attributed to the objects employed in the game.” In contrast to Sander’s desire to capture what is true about his subjects Keita’s portraiture becomes an instrument of myth-making and self-fashioning. Such a gathering of Sander’s photos is also a rare site in New York City. The selection is extensive and as such illustrates well Sander’s purpose as described by Gabriele Conrath-Scholl to “establish a record both of the various social classes and of their environments.”  The photographs demand close scrutiny because it is in the details (posture, work accessory) that the social identity is conveyed.

Both artists carefully construct the image to convey the social identity of the sitter and yet differences are highlighted by the juxtaposition of the two bodies of work. Keita’s images speak of his subjects’ social aspirations while Sander’s images conveys the current social status of his sitters. Furthermore there is a directness in Keita’s sitters that you don’t find in Sander’s who show little of their personality.