Mikael Owunna
Infinite Essence: Emem, 2018
Estimated Value: $7,500

Aluminum metal print
24 x 36 inches
Edition 1/6
Framed
Signed, verso
Donated by the artist.

"Infinite Essence" is photographer-engineer Mikael Owunna's response to pervasive media images of black people dead and dying. Being gunned down by police officers, drowning and washing up on the shores of the Mediterranean, starving and suffering in award-winning photography. The trope of the black body as a site of death is everywhere.

With this series, Owunna has set about on a quest to recast the black body as a site of magic. He hand paints all of his models’ bodies with fluorescent paints, and using his engineering background he built a flash that only transmits ultraviolet light. Using this method, in total darkness, Owunna clicks down on the shutter – “snap” – and for a fraction of a second, his models' bodies illuminate as the universe.

Ultraviolet light is not visible to the human eye, and so we can illuminate and find the unseeable therein, the soul, the Igbo concept of chi. It is on this plane of existence where, regardless of our experiences of oppression on the physical plane, we are infinite.

About the Artist:
Mikael Owunna

Mikael Owunna (b. 1990) is a Nigerian-Swedish American photographer, Fulbright Scholar and engineer. His work explores the relationship between engineering, optics, the black body and queerness. Owunna imagines new universes and realities for marginalized communities around the globe.

Owunna’s work has exhibited across Asia, Europe and North America and been featured in media ranging from the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and VICE to The Guardian. He has lectured about his work at venues including Harvard Law School, World Press Photo (Netherlands), Sveriges Radio (Sweden) and TEDx. His first published monograph, Limitless Africans, was released in 2019.

Website: mikaelowunna.com
Facebook: /mikaelowunna
Instagram: @mikaelowunna
Twitter: @mikaelowunna
Venmo: @Mikael-Owunna