John Akomfrah, British, born 1957
Purple, 2017
Purple comes from an exhibition titled “Our World is Burning” or “Notre Monde Brule” in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris France. The exhibit was shut down for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic which perfectly adds to the message of Akomrah, in which the world is at a breaking point or a point of no return. The dramatized message is displayed from the overwhelming movie theatre view. Purple is the last room of the exhibition. The six screens act to represent the Anthropocene, displaying the various crisis in our world from displaying cruel Animal testing to a melting Mount Everest. The remarkable feature of this work is what should be said for the fact that humans will view these on six large screens from a dark museum in one of the largest cities in the world. As many criticisms mention the issue of placing too much value on to the aesthetics of ecological crisis, Akomfrah tries to combat this by creating an uncomfortable chaos. Playing loud noises of animals and natural disaster viewers are urged to feel unnerved and ready for action. Label by Annabel Bentley