In 2024, at the 4th edition of the
@lagos_biennial , I encountered an installation that stayed with me long after I left the site. I can no longer recall the artist’s name, and I’m not sure I ever came across a text accompanying the work, but its presence was unmistakable. The installation centered on a heavy-duty construction vehicle—the kind typically reserved for state-led projects of immense scale. Suspended from it was a gigantic brick, hung by a metal cable. Another brick sat firmly on the ground below, as though the suspended one was being lowered into place, mid-process, frozen in motion. Up close, I realized the bricks were not real but props. I remember feeling briefly disappointed. Still, the message had already landed. What struck me most was the use of unconventional instruments, industrial machinery and monumental forms, within an art context. It felt powerful, unmistakably political. The work seemed to insist on the seriousness of art, suggesting that the very tools the government uses to shape—or unshape—society can also be reclaimed by artists to reshape it. I remember thinking then: if I were to make an installation, it would have to be heavy, uncompromising, and forceful. Looking back now, after Soro Soke: What Do You Remember —a commemorative event marking the End SARS massacre of 2020—I find myself wondering whether that Biennial encounter had quietly shaped my thinking. One of the installations from the commemoration, Face Me, I Face You, featured two massive road demarcation bricks: one fallen, the other standing upright at a right angle. They were installed using a heavy-duty vehicle, and even the act of transporting and placing them prompted questions: Is this still art? Facing the bricks was a large mirror, positioned almost confrontationally. The installation sought to recreate the tension of the night at the Lekki Toll Gate, offering audiences a way to stand within that moment and see themselves reflected on that ground. Many young people begin recounting their October 2020 experiences by saying, “I could easily have been there that night.” And it’s true—we all could have been. 👇
