Tied to the Other Side
Otobong Nkanga
Nigerian-Belgian, born 1974
2021
A monumental woven tapestry in which Otobong Nkanga overlays deep indigo weaving, embroidered accents, and found-object motifs to bind material histories, extraction, and bodily presence into a single speculative landscape.
The work hits you with a dense, night‑blue field alive with shimmering dots and layered marks, a fan of golden threads projecting from the left, upright poles and drifting canoe‑like forms, and coral‑like growths that make the surface feel simultaneously underwater, mapped, and stitched with memory.
Nkanga reclaims tapestry—a historically domestic craft—as a politicized contemporary medium, making visible entanglements of ecology, labor, and colonial extraction while bridging painting, sculpture, and textile traditions.
Medium
Woven tapestry
Dimensions
11' 5 13/16" × 19' 8 1/4" (350 × 600 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Candace King Weir
Accession
58.2023
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
