This year is a timely one to revisit the work of Rotimi Fani-Kayode for two reasons. Firstly, 2014 is the 25th anniversary of the photographer’s premature death aged 34, and secondly it coincides with the introduction of proscriptive laws against homosexuality in the artist’s native Nigeria. Sexuality is a major subject in Fani-Kayode’s oeuvre, and is interwoven with other themes such as religion, the ceremonial traditions of his Yoruba tribe, and the cultural displacement brought about by his move from Lagos to England aged 12 as a refugee from the Biafran War.
Tiwani Contemporary, London, is putting on the retrospective Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955 – 1989) in partnership with Autograph ABP – an organisation the artist co-founded. The collection includes many of the photographer’s most important images taken in the four years leading up to his unexpected death, with large-scale colour and black and white works on show. Motifs from ancestral rituals appear alongside those of western religious iconography, juxtaposed with explorations of homoeroticism. The dates are 19 September to 1 November.
Sonponnoi, 1987
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
The Golden Phallus, 1989
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Snap Shot, 1987
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Every Moment Counts (Ecstatic Antibodies), 1989
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Bronze Head, 1987
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Maternal Milk, c. 1986
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Nothing to Lose VIII (Bodies of Experience), 1989
© Rotimi Fani-Kayode,
courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
