At home with the world: international artists to watch out for at KMB

Known for his large-scale sculptures that explore the relationship between the human race and technology, Villar Rojas will present untitled sculptures from the series Rinascimento at the biennale. Visitors to the godown will encounter obsolete models of refrigerators with open freezer compartments displaying organic matter petrified in various states of decay and entropy, from frozen meat to farm produce, fish, fruit, beverages as well as roots and leaves. A note on the work in the biennale guide reads, “These displays mimic the form of dioramas, condensing the vast and extractive biome of the Anthropocene into the contents of a domestic refrigerator, each material form in this assemblage a signifier of capitalism’s reconstitution of the earth — from the mass production of farms to the expansive supply chains that grid the globe.”

Otobong Nkanga’s work at Markaz & Cafe

LaToya Ruby Frazier, American

At: Anand Warehouse and Island Warehouse

On Time Magazine’s 2024 list of 100 Most Influential People in the World, Frazier’s powerful works blur the lines between private memories and public history to discuss the predicaments of the marginalised working-class communities, exploring themes of family, race, environmental injustice, economic and social inequality. At the biennale, she will showcase two works from her celebrated series Flint is Family (2016-2022), which traces negligent government decisions that led to the devastating water crises in Flint (Michigan) that began in 2014. While a documentary will depict life amid the long-drawn crises through the experiences of poet and activist Shea Cobb and her family, a triptych photographic banner Water is Life (2018) documents a public installation created from 2017 to 2018 by The Sister Tour, a platform for artistic expression co-founded by Cobb and artiste Amber Hasan.

Otobong Nkanga, Nigerian

At: Markaz & Cafe

Recognised for her multidisciplinary work that explores the intertwined relationships between land, body, mineral extraction, ecology and post-colonial histories, at KMB the Belgium-based artist will nurture an outdoor garden that mirrors the region’s biodiversity and deep interconnections between the soil and cultural memory. Titled Soft Offerings to Scorched Lands and the Brokenhearted, the project will feature native and non-native fruiting and flowering plants, with a garden path leading to a dilapidated room with walls reinforced by the roots of an old banyan tree. As a soundscape plays, viewers are invited to occupy seating around a pond, moulded from mud and laterite and covered with locally woven mats made with cane and bamboo.

Nari Ward @ Anand Warehouse

Tino Sehgal, British-German

At: Pepper House

Acclaimed for choreographed encounters with the audience and “constructed situations”, in Kochi, Sehgal will present three works from different decades in alternation throughout the day. This includes Kiss, presented at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2003, where a man and a woman were seen in a sequence of embraces that reference iconic artworks by masters such as Auguste Rodin, Jeff Koons and Constantin Brâncuși.

Ibrahim Mahama, Ghanaian

At: Anand Warehouse

Transforming everyday utilitarian materials and obsolete commodities into powerful social and architectural interventions, Mahama will bring to Kochi an iteration of Parliament of Ghosts, which reflects on the city’s political and economic histories and shadows of colonial extraction. The immersive archive will feature, among others, walls covered with jute sacks bearing stained stampings of changing ownerships, discarded chairs from public institutions and other materials gathered from second-hand markets in Kochi.

Nari Ward, Jamaican-American

At: Anand Warehouse

Known for his monumental assemblages and community-embedded artworks, Ward will be bringing his endearing “Canned Smile” series to Kochi. Hand-painted in gold and silver with decorated blue line work, his pushcart will travel around the streets of Fort Kochi, inviting passersby to smile into open cans with mirrored mylar inserted at the bottom, produced in Kochi. As an act of preserving this smile, the cans will be then closed using hand-turned can sealers mounted on the cart and added to his large spherical sculpture at Anand Warehouse.