AKWAEKE EMEZI

"This World Has Killed Me" | Single-channel video | 01:30 | USA, 2017

Items: palm fronds, including the tender ones called omu; eke, the python as the physical manifestation of the Igbo deity Ala, the other/first mother; nzu, the chalk; ahu, the body. 

Nakedness: the fleshface as a mask; the mask as a spiritface; the gate on the body/the gate as the body/the body as the thing trapped in the gateway.

Audio: an edit of the song 'Nwa Nnem Uwam Gbulam' ('My Sibling, This World Has Killed Me'), as performed by Area Scatter, a genderfluid Igbo artist from the 1950's/60's. In this portrait, it addresses ndi otu, the ogbanje's siblings on the other side.