Sited Nomadism from the Atlantic to West Africa: Addoley Dzegede

Abstract

This chapter examines the nested familial, national, and global histories encoded in the multivalent practice of Ghanaian-American artist Addoley Dzegede. Although she was born and educated in the United States, Dzegede considers herself nomadic, undertaking residencies over the last six years across the United States, Europe, and West Africa. I seek to interrogate the political potential of nomadism as expressed in Dzegede’s fabric-based work, particularly her charged use of color, pattern, cultural, and personal signifiers. The concept of nomadism has come under scrutiny for its failure to address local concerns, its erasure of migrant experience, and its centering of art world spectacle. While not seeking to recoup the term, I argue that by interweaving micro-histories within larger narratives of transnational trade, immigration, and embedded local knowledges, Dzegede centers the personal within the political. Her work reveals her own entanglement within these site-specific narratives while directing viewers to investigate their own.