Ayọ̀ Akínwándé

Ayọ̀ Akínwándé
BreXit Series
January 2021, UK

Make Britain Great Again British Independence    British/Nigeria Independence 
2021 2021     2021
Single Channel Video Video     Video
Sound, Colour Sound, No colour     2-Channel Video
8:07secs 2:57secs     2:57secs each

This is a three-part video series that uses archival footage in de-understanding the British comedic obsession with the word “freedom” in the context of BreXit. 

In the first video “Make British Great Again,” the story of BreXit is consumed from the lens of a Nigerian through the Nigerian Television Authority. Each frame is laced with irony and satire, and the richness of which is brought alive in colour.

In the second video “British Independence” an archival footage of the Nigerian Independence by the Associated Press (AP) becomes a way to engage with politics, time, memory, and the idea of freedom. The voice over recordings from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is the archetype of the “White Male”, is used in re-telling the BreXit story. The irony of the notion of “British Independence” from a colonial European Union (EU) is not lost on anyone.

In the third video “British Independence/Nigeria Independence” the footage from Nigeria’s Independence from the British in 1960, is place along side the re-invented video of the “British Independence.” If the message isn’t clear from the first two videos, this final one, makes obvious the sarcasm, and satire within which the BreXit story is consumed from the lens of an artist who is from a country that was once colonized by the British.

The project was done in collaboration with Freddie Darke, a British visual artist who did the voice over, and Nigerian video editor, Olasunkanmi Ayobami. 

All footage was from the Internet.

This project was made possible with funding from the F9 Contemporary Arts Foundation.