Emeka Ogboh

Nigerian sound and video artist Emeka Ogboh utilizes field recordings to create detailed soundscapes as a method for understanding cities and cosmopolitan environments. Foremost among his subjects is Nigeria’s dense capital city, Lagos, which he has recorded extensively and presented in installations around the world. His work has been featured in galleries and museums ranging from Helsinki and Berlin to Houston and Washington, D.C. In 2018, Ogboh began experimenting with adding musical forms to his soundscapes and released his debut album, Beyond the Yellow Haze. A second album, 6′30′33.372N 3′22′0.66E, was released in 2022 and was focused entirely on a single bus station in Lagos.
Ogboh studied graphic design at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka and initially pursued more visual mediums in his artwork. In 2008 he became interested in the concept of sound after attending a class with Austrian multimedia artist Harald Scherz at the Fayoum Winter Academy in Egypt. From that point on Ogboh began exploring the idea of capturing the soundscapes of his home city which he likened to a symphony. His field recordings are generally unmodified and represent different facets of life in Lagos and other cities he has recorded. In museums his work has typically been presented in listening booths, though in cities like Cologne and Helsinki, installations have been installed outdoors and broadcast on the street. One of his more notable works, Lagos by Bus, captures the sounds of passengers traveling via the city’s many share taxis or danfos and its installation was fashioned to resemble one of the vehicles. His work is often sociopolitical and has occasionally utilized pre-existing recordings such as the public speeches of his piece The Ambivalence of 1960. Throughout the 2010s, his work was presented at museums in Venice, Brenan, Cleveland, and Brooklyn. A 2017 piece featured at the Tate Modern in London was shortlisted for the Hugo Boss Prize.
In 2018, Ogboh released his first work as a musical artist. Released by German label A-Ton, his debut album, Beyond the Yellow Haze, combined a wide swath of Lagos field recordings with ambient electronics and dance music. For his next release, Ogboh dialed in his focus to a specific location within Lagos. Released in 2022, 6′30′33.372N 3′22′0.66E is centered entirely around Ojuelegba, a former sacred shrine that now serves as one of the city’s busiest bus stations. ~ Timothy Monger