David Uzochukwu is an Austrian and Nigerian artist. Growing up in Luxembourg and Belgium, Uzochukwu delved into self portraiture at age thirteen, and began developing a largely digital practice. It lead to vivid collaborations with artists FKA twigs and Iris van Herpen among others, as well as a commission for the World Wildlife Fund. Their self portrait series A FAMILIAR RUIN was included in group show Dey Your Lane! at Bozar (2016). Further exhibitions include Photo Vogue Festival (2018, 2019), and The New Black Vanguard at Rencontres d’Arles (2021). Uzochukwu was nominated for an ICP Infinity Award in 2019, and named „One to Watch“ by British Journal of Photography the following year. Uzochukwu’s first short film, GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, premiered at Max-Ophüls-Preis in 2021, while their first film installation is in development at CPH:DOX’s lab. Uzochukwu is based in Berlin, pursuing a BA in Philosophy and Cultural Studies.
In The Wake, 2015-2020
Artist statement (short):
“With self-portraiture as the starting point, my aim is to recognise myself in others, and to have them see themselves in me. In The Wake speaks of destruction and rebirth. Digitally stripping places from clear historic and geographic markers and bodies from the confines of their social reality, I imagine what core remains when layers of our everyday are dissolved one by one. With characters visually submersed in landscapes, separation between their inside and outside melts away.
The series is also informed by reflections on the construction of nature – and how tales of its entanglement with bodies have been dangerously romanticised. What is this ideal state supposedly preceding culture? Who profits from the idea of untouched wilderness – and thus of the opposing concept of civilisation? How has it assisted the construction of Blackness and the exploitation of what is perceived as other?”
David Uzochukwu
David Uzochukwu
Born 1998, Innsbruck
Nationality: Austrian/ Nigerian
Lives and works in Germany/Belgium
Prix Pictet Fire
May 26 – October 15, 2023
Fotografiska Museum New York
281 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10010
https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/
Prix Pictet
https://prix.pictet.com/
