The Baldy Center Podcast

Episode 13 features Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, interdisciplinary artist and University at Buffalo Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Department of Art. Udondian discusses her new sculptural work The Republic of Unknown Territory on exhibit in the UB Arts Collaboratory. The work is focused on immigrants’ experiences in migrating and building society. Udondian art installation highlights the politics of the post-colonial global market in second-hand clothing. The gallery exhibit runs from February 27 to March 27, 2021, in The Space Between.

Keywords: Cultural Studies, Art and Politics, Narrative Studies, Immigration Studies, Post-colonialism, Global Trade Systems.

Victoria Udondian creates work that questions notions of cultural identity and post-colonial positions in relation to her experiences growing up in Nigeria, a country flooded with cast off from the West. Her work is driven by her interest in textiles and the potential for clothing to shape identity, informed by the histories and tacit meanings embedded in everyday materials. Udondian won the Guggenheim fellowship in 2020. Her works have been exhibited internationally in Lagos, Venice, New York, UK, including: South London Gallery, London; The Inaugural Nigerian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial-An Excerpt, Fisher Landau Centre for the Arts, New York; The Children Museum of Manhattan, New York; National Museum, Lagos; Whitworth Gallery in Manchester; among others. Some of her artist residencies include, Instituto Sacatar, Bahia, Brazil; Mass Moca, Massachusetts; Fondazione di Venezia, Venice and Bag Factory Studios, Johannesburg. Learn more.