Camouflage is acknowledged in science as a type of mimicry, through which an organism or object adopts the looks of its environment to evade detection. It’s a bodily phenomenon pushed by chemical processes and serves as a vital device for resistance and survival in each pure and human contexts. As Roger Caillois explored in Man, Play and Video games (1958), camouflage can even transcend organic necessity to enter the realm of play and inventive expression. On this sense, mimicry turns into each a survival mechanism and an act of deception, seen in video games and social interactions alike. Morphing into imitative play, the act of mixing in or masking one’s true identification emerges as a cultural and social follow. Inside this oscillation between concealment and visibility, questions come up about how identification is carried out to satisfy societal expectations, and in regards to the social, cultural and political implications of bodily and symbolic transformation, identification and invisibility.
The theme of camouflage—handled as a bodily, cultural and sociological phenomenon—has been central to Anthony Akinbola’s follow since his vibrant, durational compositions first drew consideration practically a decade in the past. After a short foray into set up and sculpture, the artist returns to this core focus in his new present at Sean Kelly. Right here, he extends his exploration of camouflage by means of method and materials, in an strategy that has develop into his signature, whereas persevering with to push the bounds of portray, reworking on a regular basis substances into imaginative, evocative areas that transfer past typical features and meanings.
“With this present, I wished to discover how camouflage features each politically and naturally,” Akinbola instructed Observer forward of the opening, as he was finalizing the final works in his studio. “My authentic intent was to discover what the fabric does socially, what it means in public area and the idea of stereotype menace. I began that physique of labor and even named it earlier than I actually explored it, and after exploring it for the previous 9 years, I feel I’m revisiting what that work means to me.”
For not less than a decade, the durag has been a central materials in Akinbola’s follow. Headwear generally related to African-American tradition carries layers of which means, from hair care and cultural identification to entrenched stereotypes that Akinbola has lengthy sought to problem. On this present, he pushes the fabric additional, camouflaging it into landscapes like gardens or seascapes, resisting typical readings of each the material and its cultural associations.
Durags themselves are cultural artifacts formed by context, location and time. “Durag grew out of African tradition, but additionally implies this juxtaposition—Africa and Black America—two parts which are very totally different, but actually the identical,” Akinbola defined. “I wished to research this concept of dropping my identification, but additionally by means of the potential stereotyping that comes with how folks understand the durag,” he added, noting how these perceptions have lengthy outlined the start line for his work.
“There’s one thing about survival in how I’m utilizing camouflage and the way I’m talking in regards to the durag. It’s each resistance to stereotypes and resistance to direct readings of the fabric. That’s why the durag will be in a backyard scene, surrounded by flowers, and nonetheless communicate to racism, oppression, stereotype menace and all these different issues. It expands past each the standard use and the traditional which means of the fabric.”
Stitched and layered in complicated patterns, the durag—a fabric dense with cultural associations—transforms into pure pigment, creating compositions which are vibrant, luminous and poetically evocative. If Akinbola’s durag work as soon as spoke primarily to assimilation, stereotyping and Black identification, they now additionally draw on coloration idea and the potential of abstraction to summon whole worlds. “Colour was positively the primary focus,” Akinbola confirmed, pointing to a portray titled Pink Lemonade and reflecting on how it’s only a pink piece but conjures a complete picture and the sensations tied to it.
After we met Akinbola a yr in the past for his present at SCAD in Savannah, he instructed Observer that he wished to place his work inside portray as a result of the artwork world stays so protecting of what counts as “portray.” Difficult and increasing that definition has been a central drive in his analysis. “To color, I take advantage of objects which are already a repository for cultural and social recollections,” he stated. At SCAD, Akinbola employed merchandise equally marked by African-American associations to create huge painterly preparations that, from a distance, coalesced into summary compositions.
Echoing Bruno Latour’s Actor-Community Idea, durags and different objects in Akinbola’s work should not merely uncooked supplies; they carry histories, cultural associations and social meanings. Every object features as an energetic node in a community linking artist and viewer. Colour, texture and even the exhibition area work together with these objects, collectively shaping notion and interpretation. By way of this interaction, the works transfer past the meanings embedded in particular person parts, changing into signifiers of broader collective and societal expression and chatting with the African-American expertise whereas opening onto new imaginative and allegorical realms.
In “Camouflage,” the works are much less involved with critique or pedagogy and extra attuned to how coloration, texture and gesture generate new narratives and imaginative areas, related to forces bigger than cultural specifics or private histories, similar to nature.
When talking with Akinbola this time, he emphasised the transgressive act of presenting these objects as work—particularly in opposition to the backdrop of portray’s historical past and exclusivity. It turns into a direct problem to the Western, Eurocentric understanding of what portray is and what it may be, inviting viewers to look past these limits.
On this sense, Akinbola locations himself inside the lineage of artists like Robert Rauschenberg, who questioned portray’s respectability by bringing the fabric realities of life into the canvas and utilizing on a regular basis objects as mediums. “I really feel like I’m working inside that very same heritage,” Akinbola mirrored. “Portray is supposed to evolve.”
The way in which Akinbola works with given colours appears like creating “lived” work, the place the fabric comes from day by day life. “These are durags, supplies that individuals dwell with. I like the thought of them being work,” he stated, “but it surely’s not about creating symbolic imagery, that’s not my purpose, nor collage. It’s one thing of its personal.”
By way of this strategy, Akinbola checks viewers’ responses to supplies and their experiential potential. “I feel it’s extra about witnessing folks’s reactions to the objects and the work. And from that, I can observe the social dynamics. As a result of I’m human and have a relationship with objects, that dynamic is simply there.”
“I’ve been preferring to make use of the time period representational abstraction,” he continued, explaining that for this present, he each knew sure issues he wished to render and the story he wished to inform round camouflage, not as a conceptual concept, however as a literal historical past of it. “I knew I wished to create a water scene and a backyard, so I knew I’d want inexperienced for the backyard, and the solar would play a job,” he stated, citing one of many largest items within the present, which is meant to evoke the ocean. On this work, he created a gradient transferring from white to black by means of blues to depict the ocean. The piece resonates in its abstraction with Monet’s late Water Lilies, whereas nonetheless giving viewers a way of recognizable actuality.
“With artwork, we’re at all times mimicking issues that exist in nature. I’d say I’m a painter. Many individuals may attempt to say I’m not, however I’m unsure what labels even imply anymore,” he argued, noting that the artistic freedom provided by camouflaging—of supplies, of his personal model, of his personal lexicon—has launched him from any strain to label his work.
At a sure level, Akinbola admits he’s now not even interested by race when making these work. “I’ve been working with durags for thus lengthy, so it has that basis, however now it’s about coloration and abstraction,” he stated. “It’s not about labor or the ready-made anymore; at this level, I’m specializing in portray and coloration.”
With this present, Akinbola intentionally seeks to free his inventive language from each the bodily supplies and the biased, stereotypical readings he has lengthy confronted as a Black artist within the U.S. “I wish to concentrate on camouflage as the primary theme, however I wish to evolve past the entire stereotype menace and assimilation dialog,” he remarks.
These works ought to subsequently be understood as each inventive and philosophical inquiries into what portray, coloration and objects will be, past the meanings conventionally tied to them. They emerge as symbols of a broader world, suggesting the opportunity of an evolving inventive lexicon free from racial or cultural categorization.
“I wish to handle greater ideas,” Akinbola asserted. The camouflage—whether or not by means of carrying a durag, code-switching, or treating portray in unconventional methods—is, for him, about opening new potentialities for transformation and which means. It means that there are different methods to learn this materials world. “I additionally need folks to acknowledge that I’m attempting to color. These aren’t simply conceptual executions of displaying durags in a gallery area.” For Akinbola, that is the essence of his follow: to maneuver past the categorization of supplies and embrace portray’s potential to open new imaginative areas and new types of which means.
Anthony Akinbola’s “Camouflage” is on view at Sean Kelly New York by means of October 18, 2025.
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