RECONSTRUCTIONS PORTRAIT: Olalekan Jeyifous on Architecture as Speculation
๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ค๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐๐ณ๐ต, ๐๐๐โ๐๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐๐ข๐ท๐ช๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธโ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ด, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต (๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ). ๐๐๐โ๐๐โ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ท๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆย ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ. ๐ ๐๐๐โ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉย ๐๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฆ.
Olalekan Jeyifous is a Brooklyn-based Nigerian-American visual artist and designer. Trained as an architect, Jeyifous often works in public spaces, realizing outdoor sculptures, plastering buildings with banners, and devising murals. He also creates widely exhibited artwork, including mappings and models of the past, present, and even possible futures โ a recent project is an Afro-, agro-, and eco-futurist speculative vision for Brooklynโs Crown Heights neighborhood.
PINโUP: What led you to architecture?
Olalekan Jeyifous: Before architecture was a medium for any sort of sociopolitical, cultural, or environmental inquiry it was Saturday visits to the public library to pore over coffee-table books on anything from Danish furniture design and Japanese architecture to contemporary West African art. My mother would make observations about the various images we were looking at, point things out, and prod me with questions. I was around six or seven at the time, and thatโs when I started loudly declaring that I wanted to be an architect. Because it was rooted in a kind of sunny childhood wonder, I had no pretensions about what pursuing this field might entail or where it would lead, and as a result itโs been a constant and revelatory journey of discovery.
How has your practice evolved?
I never pursued the traditional architectural trajectory. I liked the immediacy of being able to articulate my ideas very quickly and saw an opportunity to structure a visual-arts practice around my architectural education and design process. My early work was rooted in the traditional conventions of architectural representation: plans, elevations, sections, and models. But, over time, I was able to expand the parameters of my practice to include whatever media felt appropriate for the narratives I was exploring. I started really looking at producing speculative imagery, experimental animation, and, more recently, large-scale public art, which I feel reconciles my architectural background with my artistic practice in productive and enlightening ways.
What does โreconstructionsโ mean to you? Both as the title of the show and as a historical or contemporary reference?
As a title, Reconstructions, in an architectural sense, takes on a much grander and perhaps even presumptuous tone as it concerns using design to reform/transform a system that runs quite effectively as it was intended. As an ever-evolving point of reference, I consider reconstruction to be everything Black people in this country have done to navigate, survive, and thrive within a nation designed at every turn to obstruct that process, a process which often confronts notions of space, access, and belonging.
Can you describe the project you are creating in response to the MoMA Reconstructions brief? Where is it and why did you choose that location?
My project is located in New York City and more specifically Brooklyn, where I have resided for 20 years. It imagines an alternative retro-future in which the world discovers the dangerous effects of fossil fuels in the late 70s. As a result, the U.S. federal government establishes a system of โmobility creditsโ wherein each person is afforded a finite amount of movement at the city, state, and national levels. In support of the free market, the law also provides that the credits would be transferable and salable, and so a system of personal-mobility allowance that was created to reduce pollution is quickly corrupted by the American principles of capitalism resulting in new inequalities mapped along racial and ethnic lines. This system is then examined through Brooklyn and New York City where it is most acute, and where a social geography quickly emerges in which certain communities have sold away almost all their rights to leave their immediate environs. I imagine what these communities look like and how they survive and adapt through a series of โarchitecturalโ improvisations. As always my work takes an inverse approach to the prevailing public perception of architecture as a problem-solving endeavor.
Interview by Drew Zeiba
Video portrait by David Hartt
Editing by Jessica Lin
Music by King Britt presents Moksha Black
A PINโUP production in partnership with Thom Browne
This video is part of a series of ten portraits David Hartt created for PINโUP on the occasion of Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America at the Museum of Art (Feb 20โMay 31, 2021), curated by Mabel O. Wilson and Sean Anderson. The portraits were also published in the print edition of PINโUP 29.