Everyday experience

‘Art, love, and everyday life’ – that’s the spirit of Kilimanjaro magazine, according to its founder Olu Michael Odukoya. Kilimanjaro, a broadsheet-format magazine that defies the convention of what an art magazine should be, is Odukoya’s personal labour of love and has earned him the admiration of his publishing peers. Now, he is bringing that spirit to three dimensions – with Kilimanjaro Magazine Edits, at London’s 20 Hoxton Square Projects, Odukoya is staging an exhibition with work by five photographers and three sculptors.

‘I wanted to create a photography exhibition, but in a contemporary way,’ says Odukoya. ‘It’s the same thing you do when you put a magazine together.’ With the help of a series of tunnels designed by architect Tom Finch, Odukoya leads the visitor through a narrative, taking in the work of more established photographers such as Henry Roy and JH Engstrong, as well as emerging talent such as Lukas Wassman. Visitors will view the work in the order Odukoya intended. ‘I don’t want people to look at something just because it’s put on the wall,’ he says.

‘It’s more like a presentation or an experience.’ All the work shares Odukoya’s fascination with everyday life. He uses the photographs as he would found, everyday items. Sculptures by Alex Hoda, Michael Samuels and Milton Marques will also be on display. Marques makes his work from technological apparatus he finds in second-hand shops; Samuels creates playful structures from old furniture; while Hoda melts his source materials of latex and rubber to produce intriguing, hybrid creatures.

Odukoya says the exhibition, just like his magazine, defies definition. ‘It’s an untitled conceptual idea,’ he says. ‘But it’s me, because that’s all I can do – just like a musician trying to write lyrics, there is a lot of passion.

’Kilimanjaro Magazine Edits: Art, Love and Everyday Life is at 20 Hoxton Square Projects, 20 Hoxton Square, London N1 from 4-27 February