Otobong Nkanga on climate change, hope and resistance

In this video Nkanga joins Hayward Gallery chief curator Rachel Thomas in a conversation about the themes explored both in the 2023 exhibition – which saw 15 contemporary artists respond to our connection to the natural world – and her own work.

The artist discusses our relationship with, and connection to, the world around us, explaining how we often make the mistake of trying to inflict our human timelines onto an environment with much greater timelines of its own, and also suggests how we can take inspiration from the natural world in our resistance to the climate crisis.

The pair also take a closer look at Nkanga’s tapestry Double Plot (2018). The work, which hangs behind them, in part inspired by the stars in the night sky, explores how we are able to see what is not presently visible, and also delves into power dynamics between the individual and the collective.

‘Food systems, water bodies and trees, all the things that are around us, they should be things we care for, because without them we cannot even exist’

Otobong Nkanga