In an insightful conversation with curator Bisi Silva about this exhibition, Ndidi Dike said: “I visited Badagry in 2002 to see the slave route through which large numbers of our people were sent to the Americas to work daily, for long hours on plantations under subhuman conditions. During that visit, I knew I was standing face to face with history. Yet, much as I wanted to go back sooner, it only happened in 2007 at which point I knew I wanted to capture in a dramatic visual form this cataclysmic episode in human history. No-one can visit Badagry without being moved by this ignoble part of our history or by the consequences of man’s inhumanity.” Dike’s experimentation with form led to the sculptural offering “Dwellings, Doors and Windows” in which she appropriated harbour pallets; she then broke them down to reconfigure the materials in a manner that evoked the Middle Passage. Blood is a striking motif of the sculpture, and Dike explains: “The blood represents what was shed before, during and after the Trans-Atlantic trade, but also what continues to be shed today.” –