Otobong Nkanga

Otobong Nkanga’s multidisciplinary practice examines the social, political, and material relationships with our everyday environment. Through sculpture, drawing and performance, but also writing, publishing and pedagogical formats, Nkanga creates pathways translating the natural world – its plants, herbs, minerals and living organisms – into networked, aggregated constellations evoking memory, labour, home, care, ownership, emotion, touch and smell.

By raising questions about the historical structure of a place, both physically and metaphysically, she lays out the inherent complexities of resources like soil and earth and their potential values in order to provoke narratives and stories connected to land.

At the invitation of RHIZOMA, Otobong Nkanga created several new works, including a permanent outdoor sculpture and a site-specific indoor installation. A new publication is expected in 2026.