Interview with Oladélé A. Bamgboyé

OLADELE A. BAMGBOYE Hans Ulrich Obrist 86 * Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art The Unmasking, Part II (installation view), 1999. OLADELE A. BAMGBOYE, London, 1999, interviewed by H.U. Obrist HUO: You once told me you worked in a laboratory at a certain stage. Tell me about your experiences there. OB: My first training was in engineering and I engaged in many chemical experiments. One thing I remember from my thesis was that we were required to find different ways of producing sugar. I've always been interested in producing food through industrial methods, because of my background and origins from Nigeria. When I was younger, I had always studied math and science, and the classical route was to come over to England and get a nice degree, then go home and work in chemical plants and so on. So, I trained as a Process Engineer, which meant that when you're in labs you simulate effects to prove theories that already exist. HUO: Did it have to do with genetic engineering of food? OB: Recently this is topical in many ways, but when I trained in the eighties, this was already highly synthesized. HUO: You trained in Nigeria? OB: In Glasgow. The chemist is always very interested in the minimum units of everything, atomic and so on, and the creative element is moving them around. So with genetics, when a chemist looks at something they don't see food at all; it's immaterial, it's pure science, it's a lab. There is a lot of funding that comes from industrial companies, which force you to do research. What is very interesting nowadays is that many foods come from different areas. There are many exotic The Unmasking, Part II (detail, Lightbox No. 1), 1999, Edition o f 6 (plus 1 AP), 20.5 x 24.5 x 6 in. Spring/Summer 2001 N k a - 8 7 Celebrate {Ho. 3 of a series o f SC-prints), 1994, Edition o f 9 (plus 1 AP)16.25 x 16 in. foods here, so you have the problem of culture on top of that as well. When we get yams or bananas here, they've already been sprayed with so many things to make them exist here, because if you took maize from Africa and put it here, within two days it would be gone, dead. So the fact that you can eat it here means there is already many changes going on, but when genetic engineering carries a message, the changes will be more visual. This immediately becomes much more frightening. When I was training in this country, biochemistry was becoming very popular. Here biotechnology was very naive compared to Europe or the States. The essence of food processing, or the more human side of engineering, was not appreciated so much. At that time in Europe, in Denmark, for example, for every pound of making something, they would spend up to forty pence, or up to 40% of the production costs to clean it up. In Britain there was nothing as sophisticated as this, which was disheartening. With the lab, one of things I've always found conflicting is the notion of scientific truth, which backed with authority and finance, then becomes the law. It can therefore not be challenged. We've heard of drugs existing in different cultures for years, or centuries, but until it's got a package on it, it doesn't have legitimacy. Most countries must support genetic engineering because a big push is coming from the States. It's a different way of using landmass and a way of coping. Apart from the side effects it could have, it's the political edge and the cultural edge. All of this merits more serious research right now. HUO: Every laboratory is one truth among many other truths, which are worth being explored. OB: The whole point of an experiment is to prove the truth. There are many of these truths. HUO: How did the shift occur for you, from your work in the laboratory to your work in the art context? OB: There are perceived truths in the arts, and perceived meth88 • Nka Journal...