George Osodi frames aesthetic, alluring and often shocking images that challenge viewers to consider real and troubling issues from very human perspectives. Focusing on gold mining in Ghana and the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta, Osodi has reached an international audience, raising awareness of the harsh conditions that workers and the environment have to endure.
For example, George Osodi's de Money series no. 1 is part of a 2009 body of work which chronicles Galamsey youth who illegally mine the soil of Obuasi, Ghana. Despite the dangers to their health from mercury exposure and damage to the environment from land degradation and water pollution, these jobless young adults and their families continue to search for gold, or “The Money,” as a means of survival amidst poverty and hardship.
Description:
Large format Fuji crystal archival photographic print of a gold mining site in Ghana. The image is close-cropped to eliminate the skyline, focusing instead on approximately twelve men as they stand precariously on a steep earthen slope sifting for gold. The colors are vibrant golds and earth tones with bright white highlights.
Exhibition History:
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 22, 2013-February 23, 2014; Fowler Museum at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, April 19-September 14, 2014; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, October 15, 2015-March 9, 2016
Published References:
Milbourne, Karen E. 2013. Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa. New York: The Monacelli Press; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 133, no. 107.
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High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
