ART
A JOURNEY ACROSS NEW FRONTIERS
Ludovico Federici (Year 9) saw the work of the Cameroon-born artist Luc Nonga, which deals with migration, displacement and identity
L uc Nonga’s artwork moves traditional painting into the realm of sculpture, representing his journey from French-speaking Cameroon to London. His artwork engages with themes of displacement, migration and language. The use of grids in the pieces enables him to create a third dimension that projects the sculptural painting into the exhibition space. The overlapping layers of the grids are often coloured with paint and rust, turning the creation towards tones of orange – a colour often present in Nonga’s native Africa. Another medium that the artist uses is text, which enables the audience to participate in the artist’s personal experience in what resembles a conversation between artist and reader. Alongside the text, the dominant feature of the grid is still present. The grids of wire mesh could be symbolic of Nonga’s experience of migration, representing a permeable barrier or frontier. The atmosphere I felt in the exhibition makes me think of Nonga’s history. In his journey from Cameroon to London, the young artist faced a series of hurdles relating to language, culture and mindset. To the artist, the United Kingdom was a land of opportunity, but also posed challenges that make him feel socially isolated and imprisoned, a concept clearly symbolised by the grids. The plurality and layering of these makes me think that each grid may represent a dimension for Nonga to overcome, the journey to absorb a new language and culture whilst not forgetting your past.
Extreme: colours ranging from black to white.
Personal: you can feel the artist’s passion and pain.
Individual: each observer can see something different in the grids depending on the perspective offered by different viewpoints. Anxiety: a result of the journey that the artist has started and not yet ended.
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