Sokari Douglas Camp: Fashion & Fortune

Sokari Douglas Camp CBE opens a new solo exhibition of striking sculptures at October Gallery. Titled Fashion and Fortune, the artist brings together large and smaller scale steel sculptures alongside selected prints. Douglas Camp, as in previous exhibitions, mines the historical records of earlier visual artists to examine power, commerce and colonialism within a broad Caribbean and, by extension, African context.

Drawing inspiration from Robert S. DuPlessis’ book The Material Atlantic, Douglas Camp explores clothing, commerce and emblems of wealth as reflected in fashion and dress. Through intricate metal figures, elaborate headdresses, and the incorporation of coins, the artist highlights both the oppression embedded in colonial systems and the creativity with which marginalized people reasserted identity and status. Furthermore, by delving into her own Nigerian family’s complex dress code, Douglas Camp deftly plays upon imbuing fabrics and modes of dress with new meanings. With these exhilarating new works presenting an impressive selection of motifs including dazzling displays of flowers and fruit, including a lively depiction of the tropical pineapple, she observes how people of diverse ethnicities, social positions and occupations impacted the emergence of a distinctive sartorial culture across the Atlantic world.

These latest sculptures tease out the complex intertwining histories of trade, colonialism and lineage, while simultaneously celebrating the resilience of the people of Africa and the African diaspora throughout the globe.