"Between Two Gulfs: Ecological Politics and Black Geographies in the Work of Regina Agu," International Review of African American Art, Vol. 29, No. 4 (2020)
In installations that comprise landscape photography, found text, and drawing, Texas-based artist Regina Agu examines historical and ecological connections between the U.S. South and West Africa, as well as the complex relationships between landscape and communities of color across the Gulf of Mexico. Born in Houston to a Nigerian father and a Louisianian mother, Agu spent her childhood in Texas before relocating to West Africa with her family, where she lived and traveled until her early twenties. Agu’s work is informed by the maritime routes of migration that define not only her own biography but also centuries of colonialism and industrialization, from the Middle Passage to the rise of petrocultures, and the shared impacts of climate change on opposite Atlantic coasts. With these concerns in mind, this article focuses on Agu’s use of landscape photography as a means of producing an eco-critical history and geography of the Black Atlantic, in current and recent work.
Part of "Black Atlantic Dialogues" Special Issue, edited by Eddie Chambers. More about IRAAA here.
In installations that comprise landscape photography, found text, and drawing, Texas-based artist Regina Agu examines historical and ecological connections between the U.S. South and West Africa, as well as the complex relationships between landscape and communities of color across the Gulf of Mexico. Born in Houston to a Nigerian father and a Louisianian mother, Agu spent her childhood in Texas before relocating to West Africa with her family, where she lived and traveled until her early twenties. Agu’s work is informed by the maritime routes of migration that define not only her own biography but also centuries of colonialism and industrialization, from the Middle Passage to the rise of petrocultures, and the shared impacts of climate change on opposite Atlantic coasts. With these concerns in mind, this article focuses on Agu’s use of landscape photography as a means of producing an eco-critical history and geography of the Black Atlantic, in current and recent work.
Part of "Black Atlantic Dialogues" Special Issue, edited by Eddie Chambers. More about IRAAA here.
