Property paraphrases an item from the property list of the Samuel French revised thirtieth anniversary edition of A Raisin in the Sun:
“Cardboard box with:
Ribbon
Nigerian costume
Phono record in jacket”
The box in the play is a gift—and a transmission of “authentic” culture—from a Nigerian to an American. Property, instead, presents the hybrid materials of a Nigerian-American childhood, a life in a house owned by immigrants in a suburban Midwestern town.
Rather than affirming heritage, Property dwells in its ambiguities.
detail image, from Property (2021)
BIO:Unyimeabasi Udoh (Chicago) is an artist whose practice centers on legibility, meaning, and how systems of communication and knowledge are built and maintained. Notions of surface and absence, text as image, redaction, redundancy, and blackness as color and construct play a central role in their work.
Udoh holds an M.F.A. in Visual Communication Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a B.A. in Architecture from Columbia University. They have been an artist in residence at the Driehaus Museum, Chicago Artists Coalition, and ACRE.
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