"I wanted to touch on the harsh conditions some people still suffer to escape their once homes, seeking refuge in foreign land and parallel that to the forced migration of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade."

Our interview with Motunrayo Akinola discusses his process, show, and performance at South London Gallery.
Interview by Richard Starbuck.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?

English born, Nigeria raised, state schooled and further educated. I spent my early years barefoot, spinning tires with sticks, collecting bottle caps and folding bits of paper to create characters for my brother and I to play table football. It was great! Middle years were spent investing in tales of ninjas and pirates (27 years!), sudokus on the 43 bus and screening my mother’s calls. During all of this, drawing remained a constant so I followed my father’s lead into Architecture, studying at University of East London. Two years in, I decided buildings had nothing for me and the fame and fortune akin to being a visual artist was my destiny so I switched over to a Fine Art BA. Following that through to 4 years at the Royal Academy Schools, and we finally land at South London Gallery. 

Your live performance "Footwash Screening (First) Interview" (At the South London Gallery) invites audience participation and interaction. How do you envision this engagement enhancing the themes of migration and belonging explored in your exhibition "Knees Kiss Ground"?

Firstly the audience has to wait. Waiting as an act, waiting as a mode of engagement. Not everyone who shows up gets interviewed and amongst those that do, depending on how they answer, they mightn’t experience the full set of questions. There are also various stages where the audience attempts to participate, from deciding to come to the performance itself, to signing up to be interviewed, and then engaging in the instruction to pass the sign-up sheet along - the experience should feel steeped in bureaucracy. You end up spending most of the time in the space trying to be seen, or more likely, wondering if you even want to be seen, dealing with anxieties about how you might answer and whether those answers are correct. 

In your show "Knees Kiss Ground" at the South London Gallery, you use materials like corrugated cardboard to replicate a shipping container's dimensions. How do you believe the use of such materials and the immersive nature of your installations affect the viewer's perception of space and post-colonial power dynamics?

Cardboard in itself is utilitarian, universal and familiar so it felt like the right material to speak about desires of comfort and acceptance. The softness of the cardboard makes for transportive, altered space where sounds are slightly muffled and the structural tactility fragile. I wanted to touch on the harsh conditions some people still suffer to escape their once homes, seeking refuge in foreign land and parallel that to the forced migration of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade. The absurdity of these two narratives is then further highlighted by a stage like beam which projects the viewers shadow onto the container walls, mirroring the shapes of bodies seen in the print, Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship. I want the viewer to consider themselves in both those space, hopefully questioning how as a society, we’re still in a place where such actions still take place.

Your exhibition references symbols and materials from the Old Testament, such as the hyssop plant. Can you discuss the role of these historical and religious elements in your work and how they help bridge cultural gaps and create a deeper understanding of your themes?

I think the Bible and such books are a way of finding meaning for many and I guess I try to imbue my work with such energy, using already coded objects/materials to find ways into understanding our positions on contemporary issues and inherited baggage of the past. I want my work to radiate a sense of ritual and be received as if engaging in ceremony, oscillating between the known and dreamt. It should feel familiar yet abstract, questioning and simultaneously authoritative. The work, over time, should be cohesive and rigid where a system of sorts is decipherable. Faith in its ideology as a driver. Contradiction as method, hypocrisy as sustenance. 

Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?

The studio fluctuates between chaos and the beginnings of something shit - chaos is good, something shit is also good. There isn’t a rigidity about how studio days go but I tend to be mulling over the which aspects of the work are essential to communicate the original spark in said project. Otherwise deep in Youtube shorts. To be honest, time in the world falling into silly conversations, moving through spaces and noticing slips, and finding work you don’t like is more integral to my practice than dedicated hours in the studio. I don’t have a rigid routine about working or trying to work but I wholeheartedly love when a call to interrogate a thought becomes all-consuming.

What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

The Slade BA show had some interesting works, some swollen John Mackenzie pots at Leech Pottery were immense, the performance, Review, by Agnieszka Szczotka is forever engaging! I stared at Paul Feiler Janicon LXII for an obscene amount of time recently.

Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?

There are a few things coming I can’t share yet but quietly, I have to get these charcoal on linen works out in the world! The exhibition "Knees Kiss Ground" will tour to Bonington Gallery, Nottingham in January 2025. I’d also like to re-stage the Footwash Screening (First) Interview again and again and again so please, tell a friend to tell a friend to get in touch. I’ll respond.

South London Gallery

Instagram

All images courtesy of the artist and South London Gallery
Interview publish date: 04/07/2024