Lagos Peckham Repeat, South London Gallery, review ★★★★★

Peckham is often referred to as ‘Little Lagos’, as it’s home to one of the largest Nigerian diaspora communities in the UK, and South London Gallery brings those two worlds together through art with an exhibition across both its spaces showing works by Nigerian and British-Nigerian artists.

The bustle of Lagos greets visitors before they enter the gallery with a mixture of sounds of traffic, street vendors and chants all recorded on the streets of Lagos by Emeka Ogboh. It means we start with a direct contrast of Lagos’ soundscape competing with the noise of traffic from Peckham Road. This work has also played a part in Ogboh’s own craft beer that combines English and Nigerian ingredients, and is fermented under his Lagos soundscape so it is “vibrating to the sound of Lagos” - a lovely touch compounded by the fact it’s on sale in the gallery’s cafe.

Adeyemi Michael is another artist who has an obvious cross-community element to his work by showing his mother wearing ceremonial Yoruba attire as she rides on horseback through Peckham, while a voiceover recites her experience as a first generation immigrant. Many immigrants often try to blend in to a new culture, but here his mother celebrates the differences.

Spirituality is at the heart of Victor Ehikhamenor’s work as rounding his large scale contemporary piece made from rosary beads reveals two rows of Yoruba Ibeji statuettes that are associated with Nigerian spirituality.

Arguably the best known artist in the show is Yinka Shonibare who presents two large scale photographs from his diary of a Victorian Dandy series where he poses as a black dandy to subvert the race and class norms of that day that still sadly persist in UK society.

The mix of many artists we’ve not heard of, with a close link to the local community results in the type of engaging exhibition we’d like to see more of from the South London Gallery.

Second image copyright Abdulrazaq Awofeso
Third image copyright Yinka Shonibare