‘Desire, spirituality and cultural dislocation’ – photography
‘Desire, spirituality and cultural dislocation’ are the central themes of the arresting photography of Rotimi Fani-Kayode, according to the Tiwani Contemporary gallery hosting a show of his work next month.

Source: © Rotimi Fani-Kayode, courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London.
Sonponnoi, 1987
The photographer is known as a hugely influential artist in 1980s black British and African contemporary photography, and his work often shows the black male body as a site from which to explore ideas of spiritualty and cultural and sexual difference.

Source: © Rotimi Fani-Kayode, courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Half Opened Eyes Twins, 1989
The show marks the 25th anniversary of Fani-Kayode’s death in 1989 at the age of just 34.

Source: © Rotimi Fani-Kayode, courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Every Moment Counts (Ecstatic Antibodies), 1989
The photographer termed his style of combining symbols drawn form ancestral rituals and motifs from European and African cultures ‘the technique of ecstacy’, the gallery tells us.

Source: © Rotimi Fani-Kayode, courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Adebiyi, 1989
‘Hence Fani-Kayode uses the medium of photography not only to question issues of sexuality and homoerotic desire, but also to address themes of diaspora and belonging, and the tensions between his homosexuality and his Yoruba upbringing’, says Tiwani Contemporary.

Source: © Rotimi Fani-Kayode, courtesy Autograph ABP & Tiwani Contemporary, London
Grapes, 1989
Rotimi Fani-Kayode runs from 19 September – 1 November at Tiwani Contemporary gallery, 16 Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BP
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