The photographer’s exhibition at WhatIfTheWorld gallery in Johannesburg explodes the language of race in South Africa

One of Nataal’s favourite contributors, Lakin Ogunbanwo, opens his latest exhibition at WhatIfTheWorld Gallery in Johannesburg this week. The Nigerian photographer’s new body of work, We Must Not Be Looking, takes an irreverent approach to the language surrounding race and identity in South Africa today. “While on an artist’s residency in Cape Town in 2015 it struck me how differently people referred to themselves compared to back home or the rest of the world,” says Ogunbanwo. “For example, if you called someone ‘coloured’ anywhere else it would be an insult, but not here.” The artist has taken this logic to its extremes by creating a fashionable rainbow of “wearable skins” for his anonymous human body to flaunt. From polka dots to animal print, plus pom poms and sequins, his colours are anything but black or white.

Ogunbanwo showed with Nataal at Red Hook Labs last year. Recap here

We Must Not Be Looking, Lakin Ogunbanwo, is at WhatIfTheWorld gallery, Johannesburg, until 18 March