Em'kal Eyongakpa
Untitled 21 (Naked Routes)
“The Naked Routes series is related to the history of colonialism. The photographs are taken in places historically weighted in the history of colonization in Cameroon. Working from history and documentation but also from dreams and personal observations, Em’kal Eyongakpa stages himself and performs singular rituals. Repetition and transformation which seem crucial to these rituals find a visual translation in the black and white photographs. The works n°1 and 21 are also very evocative, outlining a long-term yet brutal narrative that has to be worked out by the spectator.
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Em'kal Eyongakpa was born in Cameroon in 1981. After obtaining a postgraduate diploma in Botany and Ecology, he decided to concentrate exclusively on visual and sound art. His use of poetic, symbolic and surrealistic imagery is often sprinkled with paradoxes that challenge the obvious. His work explores human conditioning over time in relation to information, ideological consumption, freedom and identity crises.