Tracing Currents
Chukwudubem Ukaigwe
Event Details:
Date: April 12th - May 6th, 2022
Location: Poolside Gallery
Gallery by Appointment Only
Tracing Currents was presented as part of the In/On/Out Interarts Festival.
Tracing Currents is a multi-channel installation that cites multiple degrees of casual and fleeting happenings. This work colligates both extensive and distinct records of Afro-diasporic mappings by means of juxtaposing ambient and evanescent videos of African life with documentations of Black families dining together in Canada. This intermingling of specifically disparate moments, places, and time zones provokes a non-linear take on being. Moreover, the immersive installation presents permutations of expanding sensory codes.
This installation: Tracing Currents echoes literal presence; far from hyper-metaphoric or hyper-symbolic representation. It speaks to Black existence as present-continuous as opposed to anthropological.
Tracing Currents was developed through the Scott Leroux Fund for Media Arts Exploration residency at Video Pool Media Arts Centre.
About the Artist
Chukwudubem Ukaigwe is a Nigerian-born song, dispersed by a transient Atlantic breeze, currently passing through Treaty 1 Territory, so called Canada. He consciously uses a variety of mediums to relay a plurality of ideas at any given time. He views his art practice as a conversation or a portal into one, and, in some instances, as an interpretation of this ongoing exchange. Chukwudubem weighs an occurrence, feeling, or idea on a scale and then creates a narrative in his own language. He operates as an interdisciplinary artist, curator, writer, and cultural worker, and is the founder of Patterns Collective. He is also the current editor of Plug In ICA Editions Online.