Selected works by Rotimi Fani-Kayode

Rotimi Fani-Kayode

These six works by Rotimi Fani-Kayode provide a reference point for how understandings of gender change across time and cultures.

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Rotimi Fani-Kayode moved to England in 1967, aged 12. Most of Fani-Kayode’s work was made between 1982 and 1989 in Brixton, London, a period of high political tension in the UK including the AIDS crisis. Experiencing alienation from his own heritage, the artist described his position as one where he had ‘nothing to lose’: “On three counts I am an outsider: in matters of sexuality; in terms of geographical and cultural dislocation and in the sense of not having become the sort of respectably married professional my parents might have hoped for.”

GENDERS presents six photographic works by Fani-Kayode which explore masculinity, sexuality and spirituality, using iconography from Yoruban culture and Western traditions:

Adebiyi (Bodies of Experience)

Nothing to Lose I (Bodies of Experience)

Untitled (Bodies of Experience)

Nothing to Lose XII (Bodies of Experience)

Golden Phallus

Grapes.

Image: Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Adebiyi, 1989. Courtesy of Autograph, London.

About the contributor(s)

Oluwarotimi (Rotimi) Adebiyi Wahab Fani-Kayode was a Nigerian-born photographer, who moved to England at the age of 12 to escape the Nigerian Civil War. He explored the tensions created by sexuality, race and culture through stylised portraits and compositions. In 1988, Fani-Kayode, with a number of other photographers, co-founded the Association of Black Photographers (now known as Autograph ABP) and became their first chair. He passed away in 1989.