In her new work, Machine Boys, winner of the Silver Lion at the 60th Biennale Arte, Karimah Ashadu depicts the living conditions of mototaxi drivers, known as okada, in the megacity of Lagos, Nigeria.
With a background in painting and a career in video art, the work of British-Nigerian artist Karimah Ashadu carves out a distinct space of artistic elaboration, transforming what initially appears to be a classic documentary into a work of powerful creative impact. Already in Plateau, a video installation presented as part of the exhibition Penumbra, promoted by In Between Art Film at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in 2022, the artist gave voice to often invisible working classes. The video depicted a group of tin miners in the Jos Plateau region of Nigeria, showing male bodies strenuously sifting mud and moving buckets of water in repetitive gestures. With her new work, Machine Boys, presented at the 60th Venice Biennale, the artist shifts her focus to the living conditions of motorcycle taxi drivers, colloquially known as okada, in the megacity of Lagos in Nigeria, where the artist grew up. In 2022, following numerous accidents and the inability to regulate the informal economy of the okada, the city administration imposed a ban that made passengers and drivers liable to imprisonment. With a lucidly feminist gaze, Ashadu explores the consequences of this ban, focusing on the habits of the okada drivers, highlighting their vulnerability, and offering an intimate and complex portrait of Nigerian patriarchal ideals.
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