APOLLO MAGAZINE
By Fatema Ahmed, Editor
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| Vertigo Sea (still; 2015), John Akomfrah. Courtesy Lisson Gallery; © Smoking Dogs Films |
The lone black figure in the landscape has become a recurring element in Akomfrah’s films – perhaps the most striking of them all is the red-coated tricorn hat wearing figure who appears for a moment in Vertigo Sea (2015), a work that touches on migration, whaling, and the oceans, and which was shown at the Venice Biennale. Mimesis: African Soldier is certainly trying to dispel some of the post-imperial nostalgia that Akomfrah has been dramatising and analysing throughout his career, a nostalgia that he clearly feels informed the result in the UK referendum on EU membership in 2016. For all the visual and thematic ambition of his works and the acclaim (including the Artes Mundi prize in 2017), Akomfrah is self-deprecating in the way that only someone who has more avenues to explore can be. [
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| John Akomfrah |
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| Mimesis: African Soldier (2018), John Akomfrah. © Smoking Dogs Films; courtesy Lisson Gallery |
