Power Man, Amsterdam Art Weekend 2018

For Amsterdam Art Weekend 2018, De Ateliers present new film works by former participant Karimah Ashadu (b. London, 1985). The exhibition includes the two-channel installation Red Gold and her most recent film Sodoko (Power Man), featuring an area boy from the slums of Lagos.

‘Power Man/Power Man (Sodoko)’ (2018) is premiered at De Ateliers, featuring a so-called area boy from the slums of Lagos. We see a young man shadow boxing at the break of dawn. Fists drawn, mouth tense, eyes curt and unflinching. His skin recedes into darkness, dim light overhead skims his lithe figure. Skirmishing in and out of the light he has no decipherable opponent. On another channel, a young man diligently at work is chopping with his axe, never revealing what he is cutting up. The cropping of the image, the sparse light, the raw sound and the monumental size of the projections make a sinister quality palpable. The work is compelling and engaging, not only visually but also in auditive and haptic terms. Closely linked to sculpture and performance, Ashadu’s newest film installation triggers a bodily experience of the moving image....