Nepenthes London presents ‘disparate, Opaque’ by Mishael Oladipo Fapohunda

disparate, Opaque

An exhibition by Mishael Oladipo Fapohunda

Nepenthes London are proud to host an exhibition presenting artwork by Mishael Oladipo Fapohunda. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Mishael currently works between Copenhagen and London. Mishael’s practice revolves around experiments with visual representation methods and exploring community-based approaches to the transmission of visual, audial and, subsequently, cultural messages. 

Inspired by the writings of Edouard Glissant – specifically his musings around the ‘right to opacity’ – Mishael has explored cyanotype and anthotype printing methods. Both use organically occurring ingredients and our sun to aid in image rendering. He foraged around gardens and vegetable markets, even borrowing from an old botanical garden in Copenhagen to collect organic material for the prints. 

In our interview with him, Mishael explains, "This process, whilst fascinating to me, was also bound to fail. Well, not 'fail', but to fade. The pigments collected and used for the natural pigment prints won’t last forever, you see. Maybe paradoxically, I decided to attempt to mimic the temporality of the fading of these images in an archival process called photogravure printing – using oil to print fine etchings from an aluminium plate onto paper, and printing ghost prints afterwards with the residual oil paint. I feel this process is an element of my own recognition of non-linear temporality and opacity."

The result of the project is the creation of 8 unique prints available to view at Nepenthes London.

A selection of prints will be available to purchase during the exhibition. These are finished by hand with oil paint on aluminium photogravure etching plates and printed on 100% cotton, Italian Fabriano etching paper.

Price on request: please email info@nepentheslondon.com or visit the store at 8 Woburn Walk, London, WC1H 0JL.

Read our interview with Mishael here.