Sokari Douglas Camp, British-Nigerian, born 1958
Lips Oil Cans Exhibition ‘Lipstick and Agapanthus’, 2018
Sokari Douglas Camp is a British-Nigerian artist known for her work commenting on human rights issues, and the collection this piece is from points towards environmental injustices. In the work, she depicts two “distinctly African” figures, made entirely out of metal oil cans, frolicking together in a field of metal flowers with oil cans on their heads. The piece is playful, yet the grime and grease left on the cans hints to the message she is making about mankind’s dependence on oil and its effect on our relationship with the environment. It is as if the oil industry is overcoming mankind and is inherently connected to how we interact and affect our environment—as the bright white flowers are left covered in the grease while the figures play on top of them. Label by Maeve Marsh