Season 3, Episode 10: Wayward Dust
Season 3, Episode 10: Wayward Dust
In this episode, edna bonhomme is in conversation with Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, a transdisciplinary Nigerian-American artist and writer living in Berlin. Primarily working with painting, performance, video, installation and writing, her studio practice acts as a (meta)physical space where she can produce evidence and embark on earnest freedom pursuits. It is a way of coping, questioning, and occasionally proposing something new. Recurring points of interest in her work include perversion and intuition, evolving sexuality in relation to intimacy, trauma, and body image, queer and anti-colonial methodologies, religion and spirituality, improvisation, and the recovery of child selves. Her main concern as an artist is to look at the frayed edges and ruptures of constructed realities and locate spaces where healing, liberation, and (re)generation can take place. She is often pulling from her experience of her own body and though she works through narrative-driven subject matter, she is also interrogating the wider systemic contexts and constructed realities in which these issues and questions lie.
Transcriptions for all episodes are available upon request.
biography
Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju
Link: Website
Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju
Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju is a transdisciplinary Nigerian-American artist and writer living in Berlin. Primarily working with painting, performance, video, installation and writing, her studio practice acts as a (meta)physical space where she can produce evidence and embark on earnest freedom pursuits. It is a way of coping, questioning and occasionally proposing something new. Recurring points of interest in her work include perversion and intuition, evolving sexuality in relation to intimacy, trauma, and body image, queer and anti-colonial methodologies, religion and spirituality, improvisation, and the recovery of child selves. Her main concern as an artist is to look at the frayed edges and ruptures of constructed realities and locate spaces where healing, liberation, and (re)generation can take place. She is often pulling from her experience of her own body and though she works through narrative-driven subject matter, she is also interrogating the wider systemic contexts and constructed realities in which these issues and questions lie.
Monilola graduated from New York University in 2018 where she studied Studio Art (Honors Studio) and Social and Cultural Analysis, the latter of which focused on the intersections of race and cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, philosophy, sociology, and political science. The knowledge acquired in these fields continues to inform her practice today. She is also an alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Class of 2018. In addition to her studio practice, Ilupeju has also done extensive curatorial and editorial work with SAVVY Contemporary and Archive Books, among others.
Show Credits
Interview and Post-production
edna bonhomme
Images
Profile Photograph: courtesy of Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju
Cover Image: from Monilola's performance of “Wayward Dust” at the Deutsches Technikmuseum in collaboration with Decolonize Berlin
music
All other music is from Freesounds.org (Creative Commons)
Thank You
A special thanks to Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju and to the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.