What If Austria Had Colonized Nigeria? (2017) is part of a long-term body of work, Layers of Time and Place: What Lies Beneath (2017-), presenting a cross-sectional study of my experiences in the Jos, Plateau region in north-central Nigeria. The work, made up of multiple sub-series, begins to excavate the metaphoric strata of the landscape, revealing multiple layers beneath the surface of my personal encounter with the unique topography and history of Jos - bare grasslands and ancient rock formations indelibly scarred by human pursuits, past and present.
Through the photographic layering of histories, this series creates an alternate, fictitious reality asking: what if Austria had colonized Nigeria? I explore this question through the superimposing / juxtaposing of photographs from Jos with archival images and photographs from Vienna, Austria, as well as by using self-portraiture as a means of responding to and engaging with the environments I encounter - in so doing, allowing myself to be as much ‘discovered’ as ‘discoverer’.
Medium: Lithographic prints on matte paper, film transparencies and metal plates
