Emeka Ogboh

http://www.14thmay.com Oshodi Stock Exchange, 2014

This piece combines sounds, experimental music and an index of objects sold by Lagos street hawkers. The installation explores the informal economy in Lagos as a parallel economic sphere governed by its own internal dynamics and system, often referred to as System D. In summary, its best practice includes the all-important street smart that is required to navigate and survive the rough terrain, critical service delivery that involves locating customers, dodging state officials whose sphere of influence overlaps with the informal sector, coexisting and competing with rivals, balancing profits and losses, and the die-hard spirit of the hustler. Emeka is concerned with a subsection of the informal economy operated by itinerant hawkers and street vendors scattered all over the streets and major bus parks of Lagos. The sound aspect of the installation will focus on the unique voices and sounds made and utilized by these hawkers to attract customers. The sounds and voices identify themselves

as well as their wares. These sounds have been recorded and are used to create a musical composition in collaboration with the Berlin based composer Kristian Kowatsch that is minimal and organic at the same time. Oshodi Stock Exchange_1_excerpt_11kHZ8bit The composition is an extension of the Lagos soundscapes work, and in line with the compositions of Julius Eastman. According to Eastman, each new section of a work contains all the information from previous sections, though sometimes “the information has been taken out at a gradual and logical rate.” An LED display shows the Lagos Street hawking sales index contrived from fictional and non-fictional companies. The idea is to create a utopian representation of the informal sector by displaying them on the stock exchange index. Emeka Ogboh is a Nigerian artist, whose work deals with broad notions of listening and focused on hearing. He works primarily with sound and video to explore ways of understanding cities as cosmopolitan spaces, each endowed with a unique character. It is his goal to employ field recordings to explore the history and aural infrastructure of cities, in particular the city where he lives : Lagos, Nigeria. The corpus of works produced from these sound recordings has led to the Lagos soundscapes project, which documents the mega city through sound. Emeka is a DAAD 2014 grant recipient, and has exhibited in Nigeria, and internationally, at venues including, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos; Menil Collection, Houston; MassMOCA, Massachusetts; Shin Minatomura, Yokoha- ma; Museum of Contemporary Arts Kiasma, Helsinki; Rauternstrauch-Joset-Museum, Cologne; and at the International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO) Madrid. Emeka is co-founder of the Video Art Network Lagos, and a member of the African Centre for Cities project on African Urbanism. He is also an affiliate member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and was part of the Media Lab in the Africa delegation to the 16th International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEARHUR 2010 (Dortmund, 2010).