Kayode Ojo
(b. 1990, Cookeville, Tennessee)
The Pit
Date2023
MediumDeco 79 Stainless Steel Pocket watch Style Wall Clock, silver, chandelier chain
DimensionsOverall dimensions variable
Other (Wall Clock): 22 x 16 x 6 in., (55.9 x 40.6 x 15.2 cm,)
Credit LineMarieluise Hessel Collection, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Object numberR2024.24
ClassificationsSculpture
Not on view
DescriptionComposed of ready-made items of leisure, luxury, and revelry, Kayode Ojo’s (b. 1990) sleek sculptures move between the related visual languages of delicate minimalism and glittering opulence, foregrounding the transformative power of the material object and its ability to transport its owner through dimensions of time, place, and social status. Replete with sequins, chrome finishes, and transparent and reflective surfaces, his works possess a slick and scopophilic sense of drama, as if aware of their own curves and edges. Ojo’s work examines the intricacies of personal and popular nostalgia by archiving the physical traces of the body’s most tantalizing and precious artifacts. Sourcing his materials from fast-fashion websites and online shopping hubs, the artist weaves the familiar cadences of searching, scrolling, purchasing, and receiving into his nimble artistic practice. Ojo works instinctively, with precision and without adhesives, to refashion these items into poetic yet perverse arrangements that make visible the phenomenon of social aspiration, unveiling its double-edged nature as a facilitator of both belonging and instability.
The present work comprises an oversized decorative clock that is suspended from the gallery ceiling by a silver chain, in the manner of a vintage pocket watch. Ojo has incorporated clocks into past sculptures in various forms, mining their extensive symbolic associations that range from fashion to fatality. The sculpture stops just short of grazing the floor, gesturing to the precarious nature of existing in a world that privileges seeing and being seen.
Ojo meticulously catalogs every object that arrives in his studio; he reproduces each original item description in its entirety, exactly as seen online, in the medium line of the captions for his sculptures. Through these long lists of overlapping search-optimized keywords, Ojo probes at the latent lexical and algorithmic undergirding of contemporary e-commerce systems—intertwining the art-historical tradition of the readymade with the consumerist haven of present-day life. (52 Walker Gallery)
