Olu Ogunnaike

Trees and wood are at the centre of Olu Ogunnaike’s artistic practice. For ‘London Plain’, the artist’s 2020 exhibition at Cell Project Space, London, he used London Plane trees – planted initially to remedy the smog and pollution in London during the Industrial Revolution, now felled to make way for new businesses and capitalist expansion – to line the floor of the gallery in parquet, a common feature of art museums and ornate spaces. In addition, Ogunnaike cast a crowbar in bronze and accompanied it with other tools, inviting visitors to participate in physical intervention and dismantling of the institution. This work delineated the artist’s interest in uncovering invisible lines of production, examining the nature of ‘uprootedness’, and investigating how our environments – such as the cities we occupy and their complex ecosystems – are intrinsic to both our sense of community and individual identity.