LEGO artist brings Afrofuturistic vision to life with bricks

LEGO artist Ekow Nimako has brought another installation to his ongoing collection of Afrofuturistic displays.

Ghanaian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako uses hundreds of thousands of exclusively black LEGO bricks to represent an Afrofuturistic landscape imbued with ‘strength, power, and liberation’. His work focuses on imagined architectural achievements, ranging from small buildings to enormous towers.

Nimako’s current project, Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2000 Ships, is centred around the mysterious story of Mansa Abu Bakr II, Mali’s ruler who is believed to have sailed from the coast of Africa in the 14th Century and never returned. His tale inspired the build of over 500,000 bricks, used to create speculative urban landscapes and figures.

Based in Toronto, Nimako worked closely with studio assistants Janeesa Lewis-Nimako, Karen Osagie, and Keisha Agyemang to create the latest part of his Building Black project. Taking over 600 hours to build, each build features an Adinkra, which is a symbol that traditionally represents an aphoristic concept.

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Speaking to Colossal, Nimako said that the Andinkra ‘are meant to connect the successive medieval empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai across the centuries to the present, while providing a proverbial and moral centre for each sculptural narrative’.

“Combining architecture, historical accounts, and fantastical possibilities, Nimako transcends the geometric form of LEGO to recreate the epic voyage,” writes Dunlop Art Gallery in the description of the exhibition. “And in doing so, he presents an uninterrupted and unco-opted narrative of Black civilizations and imagines liberated futures.”

You can see this work and three more from Nimako’s collection, Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2,000 Ships, at Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Library) until January 10, 2023.

Featured image: Ekow Nimako

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Rachael Davies
Rachael Davies
I write about all the very best fandoms – and that means LEGO, of course. Spending so much time looking at and talking about LEGO sets is dangerous for my bank balance, but the LEGO shelves are thriving. You win some, you lose some.

Rachael Davies

I write about all the very best fandoms – and that means LEGO, of course. Spending so much time looking at and talking about LEGO sets is dangerous for my bank balance, but the LEGO shelves are thriving. You win some, you lose some.

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