A Tale of Two Kings (2022) is a collaboration project created by American visual artist, Chris King and Nigerian photographer and
hip-hop artist, Oba Moyosade as they participated in the Louisiana International Residency Program. Early in the collaborative process, the two spent time meeting virtually to discuss their life experiences and shared interests, eager to find a starting point for their work. During the initial conversation, King learned that the name Oba also means "King" in Yoruba, the language of Oba’s Nigerian tribe, so in a way both artists share the same name. The “King” theme serving as a catalyst for their project. For the following ten months the pair exchanged music, digital media, and creative ideas related to their project. Over that time they discovered common themes in their work and that they shared goals as artists, including a passion for storytelling and the belief that art and music can bring about social change.
hip-hop artist, Oba Moyosade as they participated in the Louisiana International Residency Program. Early in the collaborative process, the two spent time meeting virtually to discuss their life experiences and shared interests, eager to find a starting point for their work. During the initial conversation, King learned that the name Oba also means "King" in Yoruba, the language of Oba’s Nigerian tribe, so in a way both artists share the same name. The “King” theme serving as a catalyst for their project. For the following ten months the pair exchanged music, digital media, and creative ideas related to their project. Over that time they discovered common themes in their work and that they shared goals as artists, including a passion for storytelling and the belief that art and music can bring about social change.
Grow & Burn (2022)
As Oba crafted lyrics in Nigeria, King was in his Louisiana studio developing a visual language to support their discoveries. King describes, “A lot of my work has DIY or home improvement qualities, redefining materials that I’m using in other aspects of my life. A shotgun, plywood, and basic electronics for example are all meant to serve a certain purpose, but take on new meaning when they’re used as part of my art vocabulary.” Inspired by the musical aspect of the project, King started with a 12" circle, like that of a record album, as a binding shape in their first pieces. "Grow" and "Burn" are a pair of 19”x 34” musical shadow boxes, displaying a photo by Oba juxtaposed with a wooden shotgun target mounted on a mirror created by King. Each box contains electronic components viewable down the center of the box, creating a crude speaker system that plays the "Grow" and “Burn” audio when a motion detector is triggered by the viewer. King took design inspiration from the way gold records are often displayed on the wall. The exposed wiring is intentional for aesthetic reasons and also to symbolize the artists dependency on technology to keep them connected throughout their long-distant collaboration.
Oba explains, “One of the things that connects Chris and I and birthed our collaboration is our love for hip-hop and the shared meaning of our names ‘King’ and that's what inspired the audio aspect of our project. We decided that using the perspective of a ‘King” to tell personal, relevant stories in the music as well as the visual elements we’d create for the show. The music activates the gallery space with traditional and electronic sounds and texture, transporting viewers on an explosive lyrical journey through the visual components of our work.”
Roll Call (2022)
Having never visited each other’s country, the two artists relied on virtual conversations to dismantle myth and gain a better understanding of each other’s culture. “Roll Call” began with Oba’s powerful photos of protestors in Nigeria. Oba comments, “ The protest photos were taken during the End SARS protests that took place all over Nigeria in October 2020. It was a protest against police brutality, extortion and gun violence popularly perpetrated by the SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) division of the Nigerian Police Force. The Nigerian Youth came together with one voice to demand for police reforms and a change in the system. For the first time in a long time there was a feeling of hope amongst the people. The protests came to an abrupt end after the army opened fire on a group of unarmed protesters in Lagos.”
As images and stories were exchanged, King searched for something impactful that supported Oba’s photos while conveying his concern for the current epidemic of police brutality and violence felt across American culture, especially in African American communities. The set of sixteen 12” black and white photos and prints hang from a 7’ x 8’ sculptural wood stand that King designed after a DIY target stand. Together they function as a sculptural installation, titled “Roll Call”, referring to the act of listing the names of a group of people who are notable in a specified way, as a soldier, student, or protester, and also in hip-hop culture, when a person gives shout-outs to a person, their hood, or their crew.
Black Gold (2022)
As their work progressed, King and Oba compared similarities in mythological stories of Kings with themes of power, greed, money, and violence, still found in hip-hop culture today. Through storytelling and sharing details of homelife, the artists realized both countries are suffering from long lasting environmental disasters and rapidly deteriorating coastlines caused primarily by the American oil industry and contemporary world leaders. Inspired by these similarities and recognizing the severity of the problem is worsening in both of their communities, King designed the final piece, “Black Gold”, a sculptural woodcut print, focusing on the territory where each artist is from, Louisiana and Nigeria. The installation includes a 24” x 30” print mounted on plywood, showing two vertical coastlines, Louisiana with stars on the left and Nigeria with diamonds to the right, leaving a large black void down the center. A three-dimensional paper crown is displayed in either side of the print. These paper crowns were made by cutting the print along each coastline and shaping it into the two crowns, representing the origin of each artist. The outside of each crown is printed black & white and the inside is printed gold. King adds, “The crown is a symbolic headgear in many civilizations, often made of jewels and precious metals, representing royalty, wealth, and power, but these paper crowns have very little value, and in a short time will deteriorate to nothing, like a vanishing shoreline left by greedy Kings.”
Born to Kill (2019) An interactive Installation and series of collaborative paintings by Chris King and John Sebelius
"Born to Kill" was a two-person show Chris King had with Kansas artist, John Sebelius. First exhibited at the KRUK Gallery, at the University of Wisconsin, the exhibit included over fifty portraits of legendary comedians (twenty-five done by each artist) arranged in "cloud" formations throughout the gallery. Following a series of politically motivated work, King and Sebelius aimed to create something a bit lighter, a show that would unite their audience through laughter. The duo continued their collaborative painting process, shipping pieces back & forth to each other from Louisiana to Kansas as they developed the work and overall theme, that for this event, explored how comedy and what we perceive as "funny" changes over time. The show was exhibited again in 2020, just as the pandemic was limiting face-to-face events. With the help of some friends, the collaborative artists produced a lighthearted video to enhance the virtual experience for the at-home audience due to the restrictions most were facing at the time.
Born to Kill (installation) As a centerpiece in the space, the duo created a "Comedy Club" installation, inviting participants to record their own jokes and post them to #borntokillshow on instagram. The installation included a small stage, stool, brick vinyl, curtains, lighting, speakers, microphone, and cellphone stand, with a looping laugh track and theme music (by Aime Caron) playing from speakers. King explains, "The BTK show celebrates some of our favorite comedians, who we discovered at various points in our lives, and the process has given John and I a chance to share some hilarious stories and jokes with each other. We hope the show inspires the same in our viewers."
Born to kill, 2019, Installation Video by Chris King & John Sebelius
I'm Not from Here (2018): A series of collaborative paintings by Chris King and John Sebelius
In 2018, King and Sebelius continue their collaborative process of shipping work back and forth to each other between their studios in Louisiana and Kansas; Each taking turns editing and building layers of information in each piece. "I’m Not From Here", includes a series of 20"x 24" pieces consisting of painted and drawn layers of text and imagery collected from various social media dating sites in and around the University of Arkansas, where the show opened in January 2018. King explains, "We are interested in how a community of people represent themselves through words, imagery, and technology and what we can learn about a culture and ourselves virtually through social media. Having moved around the country several times, I know the difficulty of trying to make new friends as I've changed communities. Looking at this language through the lens of painting provides a broader interpretation of these images. Sebelius adds, "Our focus has been mostly on people who are trying to make new friends, find love, a sexual encounter, or all of the above. We see a parallel in this ‘Personal Ad’ language to how we communicate on various levels in our collaborative process, and how we're also seeking a connection to an audience, hoping they might have a meaningful relationship with our work.”
Superfans (2017): A series of collaborative paintings by Chris King and John Sebelius
Chris King and John Sebelius have been fans of each other’s work since meeting at a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2011. At that time they weren't collaborating, but worked closely in the studio. They soon found that while they come from very different backgrounds, they share a lot of the same interests in pop culture, art, music, movies, and sports. While teaching a workshop together in 2015 they realized that their view of sports and sports fans was a sort of metaphor for the tense political climate in America. King says, "That became a point of interest for us and it was then that we decided to collaborate on a series of large paper pieces to further develop this idea." In the months that followed, they each started a series of paintings, which they began shipping back and forth from Kansas to Louisiana for each other to work on. Superfans opened at Cider Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas in April 2017.