In the Days of a Dark Safari #5

Kiluanji Kia Henda
In the Days of a Dark Safari #5, 2017
Inkjet print on cotton paper
93 x 140 cm

As a series, In the Days of a Dark Safari combines historical research with artistic photography to reflect the ideals projected onto the image of a stuffed giant sable antelope (Palanca). In this series, the artist attempts to unveil a fictitious element of ‘official history’, showing that there are two sides to every narrative, but he is particularly critical of the position of the colonialist who ‘collects information in the forest and lays it out in museum display cases’. For Kia Henda, ‘the effort to create a Museum of Natural History is a process similar to the creation of hostile narratives from the perspective of the foreigner who colonises by maintaining distance, consigning an entire continent to a Place of Darkness.’ In so doing, Kia Henda turns his focus towards the dual ideas of colonialism and African dictatorships and how these converge on projections of Africa as ‘dark continent’ and ‘paradise lost’ respectively. Depicting various museological taxidermy animal dioramas, covered in black shrouds which might seem equal parts absurdist and apocalyptic, serves to draw attention to the staged theatricality of the dioramas. They are visual riffs on the colonial idea of darkness as per Joseph Conrad: an othering agent which allows separation, distance and a sense of moral justification for all manner of imposed douchebaggery. Overlaying these complex narratives in an effortlessly accessible and enjoyably absurd presentation, Kia Henda's series turns an incisive critical eye to the volatile muddles of the present with an optimistic glimpse towards a brighter decolonised future.