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Mediating Coastal Geologies: Earth Moving and Visual Culture in Lagos, Nigeria

Sat, September 7, 9:45 to 11:15am, Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Floor: Four, Bayside B

Abstract

Lagos, Nigeria is set on low-lying and marshy terrain, amidst the sorts of barrier island and lagoon complexes that define West Africa’s Bight of Benin coast. As the city continues to grow in population, making a home often means making the land upon which it will rest. The process of constructing this land—clearing swamps, dredging and filling then with sand, or depositing solid waste—is frequently depicted by documentary photographers. At the same time, once new land is constructed the developments often stall, and the resulting terra nullius has been repeatedly exploited by dance troupes and video to stage elaborate choreography for popular Afrobeats music videos. By charting the interrelationship between landscapes of dredging and sand filling with the landscapes depicted by leading documentary photographers and in the music videos of leading popular performing artists, this article argues that earthmoving and visual culture are two entangled modes of urban mediation in Lagos, Nigeria that collaborate in the production of urban worlds. Two artists illustrate the premise, the documentary photographer George Osodi and the music video director Bukola Jimoh. Combined, the examples demonstrate how the collaborative circulations of sand and image co-construct the urban everyday while advancing individual and collective projects of self-making under conditions of duress.

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