Come and See

It is the bridge and how its two lanes converge into a vanishing point, out of which emerges a group dressed in a flourish of cosmopolitan colours held in lineated, tasseled fabrics that offer soft illusions of movement, accentuating (and even inventing) poses, though these wearers stand still. It is the subtle unease that underpins all questions of African modernity (what is it, and relative to what?) and how this tension exists between the group and their surroundings, in a restlessness they exude that style can neither disguise nor anchor. For it is how, to the untrained eye, this group could be anywhere in the world. We have Italo Calvino to thank for reminding us that all cities are eventually one city, ‘only the names of the airports change,’ but it is history that explains how this convergence has not been without winners and losers. It is then against this history that in considering this image we ask why: why here? Why Lagos? Why now?