Fotografie Forum Frankfurt

The effect of ideologies on the identity of individuals and entire societies was explored by Akinbode Akinbiyi, Johanna Diehl and Qiana Mestrich in the exhibition at the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt. 

Akinbode Akinbiyi (*1946 UK/NG) observes the changing life in urban spaces as a wanderer with his camera – in Africa, in Berlin, where he has lived for decades and, new for RAY 2021, also in Frankfurt. In his series “Sea Never Dry”, “African Quarter” and “Lagos: All Roads”, the globally active artist directs his gaze to unspectacular street scenes – and in them to traces of past and present ideologies from religion, politics or economics. With their very own aesthetic, his works show quotidian activities in places that have outlived systems of oppression or live side by side with evolving ideologies.

Johanna Diehl (*1977 GER) focusses on places and objects that were part of complex political and social upheavals. In doing so she examines to what extent the original purposes are present and to what extent their absence still remains. In the work “Ein ruhiger Tag”, the artist transfers her grandmother's diaries into a conceptual work about the silence and the unsaid in the record of a family’s life. In her works “The Imaginary Studios”, “Eurotopians” and “Cults of Performance”, Diehl presents the impact of ideologies on design and music, architecture and interiors in the second half of the 20th century.

With her latest work “Thrall”, Qiana Mestrich (*1977 US), first-generation American and multi-disciplinary artist, participates in the political and cultural discussions on white supremacy and black consciousness. Mestrich stages photographs, some with her family, to interrogate racism and cultural ideologies of beauty. She uses materials such as hair, plants or chicken bones in unfamiliar constellations, challenging the viewer to see things different. The “Namesake” series, also on view, is a typological work based on photos of women also named Qiana that the artist found online while researching the origin of her own name.