Chino Amobi
Liste Year
Year of Birth
Country of Birth
Presented by
2021
1984
France
Fitzpatrick Gallery
EROICA
Chino Amobi’s science fiction narrative, “Eroica”, a thriller in the Epic tradition, situated between history and myth, unfolds as a cinematic Gesamtkunstwerk: an immersive stage comprised of graphic flags, a light display, video projections, sculptural props, overlapping sound work and a revolving cast of live performers, with Amobi’s most recent series of paintings superimposed atop the maximalist display.
Born from parents of Nigerian descent in the American south (b. 1984, Tuscaloosa, Alabama), Richmond, Virginia-based Amobi bridges the fields of contemporary art, electronic music, literature, film, and fashion with experimental ease. Working across these platforms enhances the richness of each medium; indistinguishable, they dissolve together in unity within the exhibition space.
The novel itself is written in the style of the cyberpunk genre, with references to historical nonfiction, folklore, and urban fiction. “Eroica” opens with the revelation of a police report describing A ...
EROICA PAINTINGS
Chino Amobi approaches painting with the same vernacular as his music compositions, and vice versa; using sound as a means of immersing the listener into the space of a landscape, envisioning each moment in his musical arrangements as a painting. So too, his paintings frame visions of life bursting forth in a fevered neon dream with sonic vibrations: the exotic bloom a proxy for his entranced audience on the dance floor, at the height of ecstasy, at the peak of inflorescence.
EROICA FLAGS
A scenographic installation translates these itinerant elements of the novel with a score of distorted appropriated flags coating the walls of the room. Amobi takes these flags, renders them black and white, and mixes them with imagery culled from the internet as a means to flatten and homogenize these symbols of national and ethnic identity. The found images spliced into the flags complicates this homogenization and speaks to his personal experiences traveling the globe as an internationally celebrated experimental musician.
This installation was originally exhibited at LUMA Wes ...
Installation view, Chino Amobi – "Eroica", Luma Westbau, Zurich, 2020 © Stefan Altenburger
MUSIC
Amobi’s highly acclaimed album “Airport Music For Black Folk” — a subverted tongue-in-cheek reference to Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” — blankets the show in a soundscape of ambient tones. Each track is titled after cities from his 2016 European tour, and functions as a critical statement about the future of avant-garde electronic music made by non-white artists.
VIDEO WORK
INTERVIEW & PRESSBOOK
Download Chino Amobi's press-book here