Tendered

Ashadu’s practice looks at the contemporary manifestations of Nigerian history as they are borne by its people and landscape. Having grown up between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the artist situates her point of view within a constant negotiation of distance, one that pertains to diasporic existences. It is through a sympathetic proximity – as opposed to a documentaryapproach – that Ashadu observes the struggles, and gathers the stories, of working men – fromthe motorcycle taxi riders in Machine Boys (2024) to the tin miners in Plateau (2022) or the palm oil farmers in Red Gold (2016). Her background in painting carries through to the visual language of her films, combining a strong sense of colour, composition and form, with the fugitive kinetics of her camera lens.