/Karimah Ashadu. Open Shields

Format: 19 x 25,5 cm
Details: Brochure, half-linen binding with copper clasp, 64 pages
Concept: Karimah Ashadu
Text: Erika Balsom
ca. 50 images
Secession 2021
Distribution: Revolver Publishing

Research images taken on my mobile phone, led by impulse and intuition at a time when this project was shaping into fruition. They embody the spirit, energy and reality of tin mining in Nigeria’s Plateau state.

Cloth and clay. Dark skin—argil ashen. Bodies melt into landscape. Residues of the past present—in water, soil, crop and terrain.

Text by Erika Balsom weaves through, delving into the context and concept of the film Plateau.

A 1977 Commonwealth advertisement from the British Times interrupts the pages, outlining zealous plans for Nigeria’s future. (Karimah Ashadu)