Sam Hopkins
Born1979
Rome
NationalityKenyan
OccupationArtist Researcher

Sam Hopkins (born 1979 in Rome) is an artist whose work is rooted in Kenya.[1] His practice is characterised by modes of working together, such as collaboration, participation and co-production. Hopkins’ artworks, which tend to be project-based and involve people as the medium and the material of the work, can be described as Social Practice.[2] In 2014, he was named one of the leading 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine.[3]

Life

Hopkins was raised in Britain and Kenya and holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh (MA), Oxford Brookes University (MA) and the University of the Arts London (PhD). He currently works as an Artist Researcher at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.[4]

Selected works

  • Slum TV (2007 – ongoing) – In 2007 Hopkins co-initiated Slum TV, together with Julius Mwelu, Fred Otieno, Alex Nikolic and Lukas Pusch. Slum TV is a participatory media organisation that trains young men and women in the neighbourhood of Mathare in digital image production.[5] Slum TV members research, film and edit stories from the community, which are then shown in local public screenings.[6]
  • Logos of Non Profit Organisations working in Kenya (some of which are imaginary) (2010–14) – is an installation of 24 individual, silk-screen prints which displays a mixture of real and imaginary logos of Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in Kenya. The work opens up questions about the ‘NGO aesthetic’, the manner in which humanitarian organisations represent themselves.[7]
  • Mashup the Archive (2013–15) was a 2 year research project dedicated to activating the archive of African art of the Iwalewahaus.[8] Hopkins and co-curator Dr. Nadine Siegert invited 10 artists-in residence from the African continent and the diaspora to re-imagine and remix the African art of the collection.[9] With Mashup, the final exhibition of the research project, the Iwalewahaus reopened to the public.[10]
  • Letter to Lagat (2015) (with Simon Rittmeier) – is an artist book which investigates the agency of objects in Postcolonial collections of the Global North.[11] Hopkins and Rittmeier sift through the traces that museum objects have left behind after the fictive disappearance of a collection of African art from a European museum.[12]
  • The Bike Gang (2015–19) (with John Kamicha) is a project about bicycles and belonging in Nairobi. Hopkins and Kamicha employ strategies of collaborative filmmaking to portray an idiosyncratic bicycle subculture that complicates dominant narratives about fixed Kenyan identities.[13]
  • The Qilin (2017–19) (with David Lalé) – is a research and film project that explores the world of African traders living and working in Guangzhou.[14] The project resulted in several artistic outcomes. GZ Calling (2017) is a 3-channel video installation that explores the labyrinthine wholesale markets of Guangzhou.[15] The Qilin (2019) is an animated documentary about African businessmen working in Guangzhou.[16]
  • Die Dauercamperin (2019) (with Jens Mühlhoff) is an installation that combines dramatised audio fragments and stage design to celebrate the fictional offline community DEZENT.[17] The work explores the agency of the individual and the notion of independence in a networked world[18]

Selected writings

  • 2011. Hopkins, Sam and Johannes Hossfeld. Sam Hopkins: Contact Zones (vol 2). Nairobi: Native Intelligence. ISBN 978-9966-1553-1-3
  • 2012. Hopkins, Sam and Vincenzo Cavallo, “Ghosts that Provoke Violence” in Heidenreich_Seleme, Lien and Sean O'Toole (eds), Ueber(W)unden: Art in Troubled Times. ISBN 978-1431404971
  • 2015. Hopkins, Sam. Maasai Mbili: Contact Zones (vol 13). Nairobi: Native Intelligence. ISBN 978-9966-071-05-7
  • 2015. Hopkins, Sam and Simon Rittmeier. Letter to Lagat, Cologne: Strzelecki Books. ISBN 978-3-942680-72-1
  • 2017. Hopkins, Sam and Nadine Siegert (eds), MASHUP The Archive, Berlin: Revolver Books ISBN 978-3-95763-398-9

Selected exhibitions

  • Nairobi: A State of Mind (2012)[19]
  • Dakar Biennale (2014) (20)[20]
  • Guess who’s coming to dinner (2015)[21]
  • Post African Futures (2015)[22]
  • Lagos Biennale (2017)[23]
  • Precariat’s Meeting (2017)[24]
  • Urbane Kunst Ruhr (2019)[25]

Bibliography

  • Bajorek, Jennifer. 'Beyond the “NGO Aesthetic”' Social Text (2016) 34 (2 (127)): 89–107.
  • Vierke, Ulf. 'Archive, Art and Anarchy: From the Topological Archive to the Anarchic Archive', African Arts. (2016) 48 (2): 12–25

References

  1. ↑ "This Exhibit Will Permanently Redefine Your Idea of Art From Africa". Bedford + Bowery. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  2. ↑ Bajorek, Jennifer (1 June 2016). "Beyond the "NGO Aesthetic"". Social Text. 34 (2 (127)): 89–107. doi:10.1215/01642472-3467990. ISSN 0164-2472.
  3. ↑ Staff, F. P. "The Exchange: Sam Hopkins and Michela Wrong on Africa's New Missionaries". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  4. ↑ "Sam Hopkins – KHM". www.khm.de (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  5. ↑ "Featured Project Slum TV – The local station – Making Africa". Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Bloomfield, Steve (9 January 2008). "Slum TV presents the other half of the Kenyan story". The Independent.
  7. ↑ "Deconstructing Logos". Contemporary And (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  8. ↑ "Sam Hopkins – Fellow Me! Die Mobile Akademie im Programm Fellowship Internationales Museum". www.fellow-me.de. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  9. ↑ "Stedelijk Studies-The Iwalewahaus: displaying works of African Modernism". Stedelijk Studies. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  10. ↑ Redaktion, Kunstnürnberg (18 March 2015). "Mashup – Neueröffnung des Iwalewahaus Bayreuth". kunstnuernberg.de (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Kunst". StrzeleckiBooks (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  12. ↑ fotota. "Unanchored, Destabilized: About Some Artists' Books Using Photography – Q&A with Katja Gentric, part #2". FOTOTA - Perspectives africaines en photographie (in French). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  13. ↑ "The Bike Gang Sam Hopkins & John Kamicha – Akademie der Künste der Welt". www.adkdw.org. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "British Council Film: The Qilin". film-directory.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  15. ↑ Siemons, Mark. "China und Afrika: Der Westen liefert nur noch die Logos". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  16. ↑ "The Qilin · DOK Leipzig". DOK Leipzig. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  17. ↑ "Sam Hopkins: Die Dauercamperin – VISIT". visit.innogy-stiftung.com. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  18. ↑ "Sam Hopkins: "Die Dauercamperin"". www1.wdr.de (in German). 13 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  19. ↑ "Aktuelles Programm". www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "Sam Hopkins – DAK'ART 2014". biennaledakar.org. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  21. ↑ Baumgardner, Julie (21 July 2015). "Understanding Contemporary African Art's Hard-won Rise to the Art World Main Stage". Artsy. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  22. ↑ "Goodman Gallery". www.goodman-gallery.com. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  23. ↑ "LAGOS BIENNIAL 2017". The Lagos Biennial. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  24. ↑ "Precariat's Meeting – Announcements – e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  25. ↑ "Urbane Künste Ruhr". Urbane Künste Ruhr (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  • Sam Hopkins – official website
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