Liz Ikiriko

Liz Ikiriko is a biracial Nigerian-Canadian artist, curator and educator, whose work focuses on lens-based media. In particular, she explores the migration and physical archives of marginalized and hybridized groups. She is drawn to understanding processes and materials, so as to create projects that highlight obscured histories and support new ceremonies of remembering. In addition to her art practice, Ikiriko teaches photography at Ryerson University and is an Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of York University. 

Ikiriko’s solo exhibition Flags of Unsung Countries has shown nationally and was recently acquired by the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan. Featuring images from Canada and Nigeria, the installation charts the struggles of an African immigrant — her father — as he adjusts to living in the Canadian prairies, while challenged by mental illness. Layering geography and memory, the images articulate a particular search for belonging, all the while asking: How do we reconcile displacement with a sense of rootedness on adopted homelands? What is required of a home - is it geography, a structure, a memory? Do we choose to belong or does it choose us? 

Liz Ikiriko, Untitled (We Need New Names), 2019. Colour photograph.

AGO: What was the inspiration for this artwork or series?

Ikiriko: I was inspired by artists, poets and writers who have been questioning ideas around diaspora, displacement, personal, cultural and societal histories and their intersections. Writer NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel We Need New Names was pivotal to this series and the title comes from her book. The work of artists Leslie Hewitt, Xaviera Simmons, Qiana Mestrich and Zina Saro-Wiwa was also very influential to my thinking on photography in the series. And through my research, I found a distant cousin who had passed but had left a collection of poetry – Oily Tears of the Delta, that became the grounding for Flags of Unsung Countries.

AGO: Tell us about a place or a space where you most love making your work?

Ikiriko: I don’t have a studio practice and at times, I can get too caught up in research which keeps me online, in libraries and archives. Though the research is necessary, and I love it, I do need to balance the work with making, moving and being connected to the physical and natural world around me. So, my ideal spaces for making work are anywhere outdoors with access to tools and materials. Last summer we were camping, and I was able to make cyanotype prints on linen using stones and sand from the beach and that was pretty ideal.

AGO: Are you in dialogue with any other artists or creative peers about your practice? If so, how does this dialogue feed your work?

Ikiriko: Because I’ve spent a lot of time in the arts as a photo editor and curator, my own art practice is one that I am quite protective of. This has meant that I’ve been very cautious with who I share my works-in-progress with. Luckily, I have trusted artist friends and groups to connect with that have provided important, caring and critical feedback on my work. Artists Eve Tagny, Flurina Rothenberger and an artists’ working group (Habits of Assembly) formed by Michele Pearson Clarke and Yaniya Lee, have all helped me to challenge, revise and nurture my art practice. Critique is such a necessary part of the art-making process but it also has to come when you’re ready to receive it. It can be a similar form of relationship as those of writers that work closely with beloved editors. Their questions, nudges and support can radically feed your direction and practice.

Follow Liz Ikiriko @lizikiriko