John Akomfrah debuts new film ‘Precarity’ at Prospect.4 in New Orleans

26 October 2017

Opening to the public on 18 November, the 2017 edition of Prospect.4 in New Orleans, organised under the title 'The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp', will feature John Akomfrah's latest multi-screen film installation Precarity (2017).

A city-wide triennial of contemporary art, Prospect was inaugurated in 2007 as an initiative to boost cultural prosperity after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina by curator Dan Cameron. This year’s exhibition, under the directorship of Trevor Schoonmaker, will consider the hybrid and creolised history of New Orleans and includes a range of international artists.

Through archival imagery and newly-shot footage, Akomfrah's new film follows the life of forgotten New Orleans jazz singer Buddy Bolden. The film will travel to the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in March 2018. The work was made possible by funds from the Nasher Museum of Art Acquisition Fund and VIA Art Fund.

Akomfrah's critically acclaimed film installation Vertigo Sea is currently on view at Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, followed by a presentation spanning his cinematic output with the Black Audio Film Collective at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. on 5 November.

For more information on VIA, please visit www.viaartfund.org.