Alumni Spotlight: Ofem Ubi

Back on Home Soil  | March 2023

 

Five months after his residency, G.A.S. Fellow Ofem Ubi shares a new body of work Back on Home Soil. In this recently developed project the prolific photographer, writer and filmmaker presents a powerful and deeply personal exploration of grief, which he approaches with remarkable vulnerability. It comes as a sequel to The Last Time I Called the First Thing I Heard was "As-Salamu Alaykum", a collection of film, photography and poetry developed during his six week residency at G.A.S. Lagos.

 

Back on Home Soil is a series of two public site specific installations by Ofem Ubi in Ikom, Cross River State. G.A.S. is proud to be a springboard for emerging art practices, offering opportunities for exchange, networking, and mentorship and looks forward to spotlighting further projects by our Alumni. 

 

Back on Home Soil: Film

 

Back On Home Soil is a film that further questions the complexities of grief. Having been initially examined through poetry and photography in a prior project The Last Time I Called… it continues in its pursuit of investigating how memory, family and time cope in the search for normalcy following loss. The film is presented in four chapters, with each responding to new provocations and acting as a documentation of the reactions that follow.

 

Opening in the ruins of a now deserted building in the artist's birth town, the film documents the interface between loss, time, place, people and memory intersected with the tangible and intangible.  

Back on Home Soil: Exhibition

 

To coincide with the release of his new film, Ofem Ubi hosted two site specific outdoor interventions in Ikom, Cross River State. The first was held within the ruins of his grandmother’s home whilst the second was hosted in his grandfather’s courtyard. Photography was strung from the remnants and existing architecture of the structures and local audiences were invited to contemplate both the works, and more widely the theme of grief which has preoccupied Ubi's recent practice.

 

Ofem Ubi who is a multidisciplinary artist from Nigeria, uses poetry, photography and film to drive conversations and preserve memories. Shortlisted and published in the Deep Dreams Anthology of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize (2018), he was also internationally published in the first volume of the INKWELL Journal. His poetry film; Velvet, was selected for the Fringe of Color film festival (2021) meanwhile his film Southpaw was showcased in the inaugural National Arts in Health Week, Nigeria. 

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