Feedback by Olukemi Lijadu
Spike Island presents Feedback, the largest solo exhibition by Nigerian-British artist, filmmaker and DJ Olukemi Lijadu. Developed through research in Chicago, Lagos and Bristol, the exhibition centres on a major new film commission marking a landmark in the artist’s moving image practice.
The film uses audio feedback as a metaphor for the circulation of rhythm, memory and cultural codes within the African diaspora. Tracing the evolution of the drum from West African tradition to electronic music, Lijadu explores how looping underpins not only music but collective memory and connection across continents and generations.
A sound system completes the installation, drawing from Bristol’s sound system culture and functioning as a physical metaphor for the amplification of histories, voices and vibrations. Inspired by early abstract cinema, Feedback embraces repetition, tempo and visual rhythm, subverting a Western-centric art history in the process.
Featured image: ‘Feedback’ works in progress (2025). Courtesy of the artist.
ABOUT OLUKEMI
Olukemi Lijadu is a multi-disciplinary artist and DJ, with a focus on moving image and sound. She was recently a recipient of London’s ICA Image Behaviour grant where she was commissioned to create and debut her most recent film-performance Guardian Angel.
In 2018, she graduated from Stanford as a masters student in Philosophy where she focused on African philosophical systems. Her academic background grounds her research-based approach to her artistic practice. Her work explores questions around music of the diaspora, heritage and the complexity of feeling.
@kemkemlij
