Accomplice

de Michael Armitage

"Over a two-year period following the contested 2017 Kenyan general elections, artist Michael Armitage created a cycle of eight enigmatic, socially and politically engaged paintings. In the run-up to the elections the artist witnessed a major rally staged by the country's main opposition party. Armitage's personal observations at this event, together with documentary images culled from social and broadcast media, form the basis for works that engage the Kenyan body politic. Filtering events through the artist's oneiric vision, and referencing European and East African art histories, the paintings open up multiple narratives and conceptual possibilities. This richly-illustrated publication, created in partnership with the artist, presents the Kenyan Election Series and associated preparatory ink drawings alongside essays that explore the complex intertextuality of the artist's work."--