James Gregory Atkinson
Trickster troping
Title: Trickster troping
Year: 2021
Material: screen printing
Dimensions: 38 x 56 cm
Edition: 20 + 5 AP
Price: 350 €
An English translation from 1841 invented the rumor that the spirit Èṣù was the devil. In the traditional religion of the Nigerian Yoruba, Èṣù always stands at the intersection of divergent forces—a cosmology that, through the transatlantic slave trade, was carried to Brazil and Cuba, where it became known as Candomblé and Santería. While James Gregory Atkinson questions the literal demonization of these West African religious symbols and figures in the service of Christian missionary efforts on the African continent, his deeper interest lies in their androgyny, multiplicity, and internal contradictions. In these qualities, Atkinson recognizes the potential to replace a centuries-old Western concept of gender binarity with a more complex understanding.
Text: Eric Otieno
James Gregory Atkinson (*1981 in Bad Nauheim) studied photography at Lette Verein, Berlin (2007–10), followed by fine arts at the Städelschule, Frankfurt (Master student under Douglas Gordon, 2011–16), and completed a semester abroad at The Cooper Union, New York, in 2015. He received travel, work, and studio grants from Villa Aurora, Los Angeles (2016), the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2017), and the Hessian Cultural Foundation in New York (2018).