The Art of Sokari Douglas Camp CBE
by Nana Ocran
To many in the UK at least, Douglas Camp is best known as the creator of the Bus, a full-scale metal-sculpted replica of a Nigerian vehicle, which was created as a living memorial to the late writer, producer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. With metal being her material of choice, she works it like a cloth, constructing larger than life masquerade figures, sculpted African busts with heads adorned with intricately twisted geles, or studded, colored and carefully manipulated sheets that give the allusion of soft or malleable textiles.
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- Red Scarf, 2013, steel nickel, 56cm. Sold: N1,320,000 ($8,250). Arthouse Contemporary November 18, 2013 Courtesy: Arthouse Contemporary Limited
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- Teasing Suicide, 2004, steel, H. 90x W. 60cm x D.100cm
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- Looking for Grace, 2013, steel nickel , H. 201cm x W. 119cm x D. 73cm
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- All that Glitters, 2013, steel, oil barrel and gold, H. 284x W. 190 x D 123cm
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- All the World is Now Richer in St Paul’s Cathedral, 2013, steel, H. 216cm x W. 560cm x D. 118cm
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- Sokari Douglas Camp. Photo: Ininaa Camp
The drama of theatre has always been an influence, so body language is beginning to come out more and more in Douglas Camp’s work in what she sees as “another way of having conversations”, in styles that seem very contemporary, very global and very black. Images of footballers making heart shapes with their fingers, rap stars posing with sunglasses and arms folded are visual images that constantly stand out to her. It’s this keen eye for physical expression that influenced her creation of a German-commissioned piece that links to another area of Africa – Namibia.
Full article published in Omenka magazine issue 4
Nana Ocran
Nana Ocran is a London-based writer and editor specializing in contemporary African culture. She was Editor-in- Chief for the Time Out Group’s series of guides to Lagos and Abuja, and has consulted on, and established publications on West African culture for the Danish Film Institute, the Arts Council England and the Institute of International Visual Arts. She was a nominee for CNN’s African Journalist of the Year (2011), and Curatorial Advisor for the Afrofuture programme at La Rinascente during Milan Design Week 2013. Nana Ocran is a regular features writer for Arik Airline’s in-flight magazine, Wings, in which she writes about art, lifestyle, innovation and cultural trends relating to Arik’s 33 destinations. She has been a jury member for Film Africa London and the Festival del Cinema Africano, d’Asia e America Latina, Milan. She currently blogs about Lagos for Virgin Atlantic.
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