Rage & Desire - ACE434.2

Examples of the work of photographer, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, born in Lagos in 1955; commentary says Fani-Kayode "saw the visual arts as a way of making sense of life", with some of his work "[verging] on the confessional". Caption: "Guys Hospital, London, December 21, 1989." Man in hospital bed; dancers; volcanic explosion; man lying on grass; photographs; African masks, crowds in street, immersion baptism. VO of Fani-Kayode’s words: "On three counts I am an outsider: in matters of sexuality, in terms of geographical and cultural dislocation, in not being the respectably married professional my parents expected. It has been my destiny to be an artist with a sexual taste for other young men." Alex Hirst, from the Friends of Rotimi, relates how Fani-Kayode brought him his portfolio in 1983, and that they became lovers. Man in hospital bed. His VO says "I left Africa as a refugee over twenty years ago. A distance has developed between myself and my origins…" Crowds, masks, etc. VO says new perspectives on traditional values are disorientating, and describes early period of his work. Dancers. Film of Fani-Kayode walking. Film of demonstrations, burning buildings, Ronald Reagan, American invasion of Grenada, etc. Hirst VO says Fani-Kayode worked from his own experience, and "had developed a dislike of authority and a mistrust of power". He talks of him as "a political and sexual rebel", challenging both the art establishment and its political opponents. Examples of Fani-Kayode’s work. Masks and sculptures. Fani-Kayode’s words over saying that his own Yoruba language and traditions were not taught in schools, and that he had to find and evaluate these things for himself. Film of Margaret Thatcher and Kenneth Kaunda. Fani-Kayode’s words saying that African arts have been denigrated as "primitive" by the West, but African images are valued and sold as slaves once were. Hirst on the second period of Fani-Kayode’s work, Techniques of Ecstasy, all in black and white, at first only a cost-reducing measure. Fani-Kayode’s words talking about white photographers exploiting black virility, and white media exploiting Africa through "victim imagery"; such images must be reclaimed and black people must "imaginatively investigate blackness, maleness, sexuality". Dancers.