“I focus on the vulnerability that all living things share.”
—David UzochukwuNominated for the 2021 Prix Pictet, the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability, and gracing the cover of the accompanying publication, Wildfire is the work that launched David Uzochukwu’s (Austrian Nigerian, b.1998) ongoing series In the Wake in which he presents Black bodies within scenes of natural destruction ‘to learn from histories of exploitation and imagine new ways of being.’ Here, the subject appears strong and composed against a burnt landscape as she looks directly at the camera, holding our gaze. ‘The dark plume of smoke rising from the woman’s head turns her into a force of nature,’ the artist explains, ‘but also calls attention to a precarious state of being.’ This powerful work reminds us of the duality of fire as an element that destroys and renews. As seen in the present work, Uzochukwu’s image-making process involves digitally layering multiple images, allowing the artist to visually dissolve boundaries between humans and the environment.Wildlife has been exhibited globally and other prints of the image are held in the Collection Pictet, Geneva, and at the Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis, Senegal.
This offering marks the artist’s debut at auction.
Video interview for Prix Pictet: Fire award ceremony at the V&A, London, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Prix Pictet: Fire, London: teNeues, 2021. Exhibited
Prix Pictet: Fire, Les Rencontres d’Arles, 4 July - 26 September 2021; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 20 November 2021 - 23 January 2022; V&A, London, 16 December 2021 - 9 January 2022; Luma Westbau, Zurich, 4 - 27 February 2022; EPFL Pavilions, Lausanne, 9 June - 24 July 2022; Athens Conservatoire, 16 June - 10 July 2022; Fondation CAB, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, 17 September - 31 October 2022; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, 30 September - 16 October 2022; CentroCentro, Madrid, June - 1 October 2023; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 1 December 2022 - 27 February 2023; Asia Society, Hong Kong, 8 - 28 February 2023; Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin, 24 March - 29 April 2023; Fotografiska, New York, 26 May - 15 September 2023; Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt, 21 April - 7 May 2023, another
Literature
Prix Pictet: Fire, London: teNeues, 2021, front cover & p. 133
E. Eshun, In the Black Fantastic, Massachusetts: MIT, 2022, back cover & p. 57
ULTIMATE
2
Wildfire from In the Wake
2015
Archival pigment print, mounted.
Image/Sheet: 133 x 100 cm (52 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
Frame: 138 x 105 cm (54 3/8 x 41 3/8 in.)
Signed in ink, printed title, date and number AP1 on an artist label on the reverse of the frame; a signed Certificate of Authenticity accompanying the work.
This work is AP1 from the sold-out edition of 2 + 1 AP. The Collection Pictet, Geneva and the Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis, Senegal each holds a print of this image.
Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000
Sold for £10,160
Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London
RPeart@phillips.com
Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe
YYamaji@phillips.com
General Inquiries
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Photographs & Helmut Newton: Provocateur
London Auction 16 May 2024
38
This lot is no longer available.
