EROICA VOL.I

Born from parents of Nigerian descent in the American south (b.1984, Tuscaloosa, Alabama), Richmond, Virginia-based Chino Amobi bridges the fields of contemporary art, electronic music, literature, film and fashion with experimental ease. Working across these platforms enhances the richness of each medium; indistinguishable, they dissolve together in unity within the exhibition space.

Amobi’s science fiction narrative, Eroica, a thriller in the Epic tradition, situated between history and myth, unfolds as a cinematic Gesamtkunstwerk: an immersive maximalist stage comprised of graphic flags, a light display, video projections, sculptural props, an overlapping sound work and a revolving cast of live performers.

The novel itself is written in the style of the cyberpunk genre, with references to historical nonfiction, folklore, and urban fiction. Eroica opens with the revelation of a police report describing Amobi’s death by castration. What follows is an archive of the found manuscripts belonging to his fictitious dead ego. With sections of the book written entirely in Mandarin, Sanskrit and graphic codes, Amobi situates the reader in a time and place beyond the comfort of an accessible Western vantage point.

A scenographic installation translates these itinerant elements of the novel with a score of distorted appropriated flags coating the walls of the room. Amobi takes these flags, renders them black and white, and mixes them with imagery culled from the internet as a means to flatten and homogenize these symbols of national and ethnic identity. The found images spliced into the flags complicates this homogenization, and speaks to his personal experiences traveling the globe as an internationally celebrated experimental musician.

The music tracks in Amobi’s highly acclaimed album “Airport Music For Black Folk” —a subverted tongue-in-cheek reference to Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports”— are titled after cities from his 2016 European tour, and functions as a critical statement about the future of avant-garde electronic music made by non-white artists.

Chino Amobi
Eroica
Installation view
Anderson Gallery
2019

Chino Amobi
Eroica
Installation view
Luma westbau, Zürich (Switzerland)
2019

Chino Amobi
Eroica
Installation view
Luma westbau, Zürich (Switzerland)
2019

Guardians of Eroica
Collaboration with Rin Kim
2018

Agamben Student Power
Poster
2018