George Osodi,
Nigerian, b. 1974
Untitled, circa 2015
Photograph
Waterfronts, collection of George Osodi
This photograph presents a common issue in Osodi’s work: human suffering along the Niger Delta. This photograph, taken through a crack of a wooden hut, shows the living conditions of habitants along the Niger Delta. It gives the viewer a place in the photo. The ground, riddled with waste and grayed with ash, highlights the hardships faced by communities along the Niger Delta as a result of oil extraction and resulting conflict. Many homes have been left in turmoil from violence from militant factions fighting to gain sovereignty over local resources, and Osodi presents here the damage that exploitation and conflict have on the environment and its communities.
Dylan Bess ’21
Bibliography:
Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta : Managing the Complex Politics of Petro-violence, editedby Cyril Obi, and Siri Aas Rustad, Zed Books, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bowdoin ebooks/detail.action?docID=688561
This source gives a detailed account of insurgency and violence that has resulted from oil extraction in the Niger Delta, and is very useful to understand the tension and turmoil that has resulted in the region, on which Osodi bases much of his work.
Paoletti, Giulia. African Arts, vol. 42, no. 4, 2009, pp. 80–81. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20627029.
This exhibition review gives an analysis on another exhibition by Osodi on the Niger Delta. It provides background information on the artist and his attitudes towards the conflict in the Niger Delta region
Dewar, Bob. “Levelling the Playing Field.” The World Today, vol. 67, no. 1, 2011, pp. 7–8. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41963042.
This article recounts the political climate of the 2011 Nigerian elections, relating them to the issues along the Niger Delta
“Waterfronts.” Photoshelter.com. Web. Accessed April 1, 2019.
https://georgeosodi.photoshelter.com/portfolio/G0000ns8MS37FfZU
This website includes ten galleries made my Samba, including the Oil Rich Niger Delta gallery to which this
photo belongs.