Abstracts History

Resonant Frequencies Beyond the Visible, Between the Lines: Re-visioning Photographic Subjects in the Encyclopaedia Britannica

by Onoriode Abraham Oghobase

This masters thesis gives an insight into my artistic practice – that explores colonial history, the otherness of colonized subjects, environmental exploitation, and personal encounters with place – leading up to and informing my MFA final exhibition. My thesis project attempts to interrogate meanings inherent in colonial representations through an engagement with the materiality of photography, with a focus on the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1968). By photocopying, juxtaposition and layering images contained within its pages, I aim to open up possibilities for the re-conceptualization and re-visioning of African subjects of this compendium of knowledge who would otherwise remain voiceless and perceived from a limited, colonial gaze. The resulting images complicate and stretch the boundaries between art and history and raise important questions, including about the signifiers of feeling and vibration that invest certain images with mystery and power, leading to a dimension outside of sight and touch.