Ndidi Dike Exhibits at Färgfabriken in August

Färgfabriken is proud to present an exhibition this autumn by British-Nigerian artist Ndidi Dike. Rare Earth Rare Justice addresses questions of extraction and postcolonial structures while offering a powerful visual experience in Färgfabriken’s Main Hall.

In recent years, Ndidi Dike has achieved significant international recognition. In 2024, she represented Nigeria at the Venice Biennale as one of eight selected artists. In 2025, she participated in the Sharjah Biennial as well as the exhibition Nigerian Modernism: Art and Independence at Tate Modern in London. Färgfabriken now introduces her work to Swedish audiences.

Dike’s works are often preceded by long-term, research-based processes in which the choice of artistic expression is guided by the specific theme of each project. Her practice is characterised by a strong sense of materiality, where the objects’ previous economic, social and political lives carry symbolism, references and tangible weight. Through installations combining diverse elements, photography and found objects, Dike highlights historical events and intertwined narratives that shape the present, while simultaneously inviting the audience into active interpretation.

The exhibition at Färgfabriken in Stockholm has been made possible through a co-production with Secession in Vienna and Zachęta in Warsaw. When presented at Färgfabriken in Lövholmen – a former industrial site with a history of paint production and material processing – the exhibition enters into a context that resonates strongly with Dike’s artistic practice, where raw materials, industrial processes and global infrastructures are central themes.

In Rare Earth Rare Justice, Ndidi Dike departs from the extraction of minerals and people on the African continent. Particular attention is directed towards cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where global demand for technology fuels ecological devastation, climate impact, forced displacement and resource-driven conflict. She exposes how our digital present rests upon systematic violence and the dispossession of land and resources. Through her use of materiality, beauty and layered meanings, Ndidi Dike captures the viewer while confronting us with colonial and postcolonial structures that continue to persist.

The central installation is a monumental suspended sculpture, composed of 900 autopsy headrests arranged in a sphere-like formation. The work relates to historical and contemporary violence against Black bodies, including references to the cargo plans of slave ships, similar to those currently on view in the exhibition Badin – Beyond Surface and Mask at Nationalmuseum. The work also includes a large circular mirror that amplifies its presence through reflection, activating the viewer.

The installation is surrounded by three tactile landscapes in white, red and blue. The colours carry multiple layers of meaning: white as a symbol of white hegemony, kaolin and sand; red as a reference to the soil of the artist’s homeland in southeastern Nigeria; and blue as an allusion to sites of cobalt extraction, where young people, women and children work under harsh and often inhumane conditions. The colour palette also evokes national flags and the countries historically and presently deeply implicated in the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources.

In one of the landscapes stands a wheelchair whose seat and backrest have been meticulously woven from used bullet casings. This transformed object dissolves the boundary between injury and healing, making visible how extraction can lead to lasting damage to communities, landscapes and lives – physically, ecologically and socially – long after a specific conflict has ended.

Rare Earth Rare Justice opens up conversations about the relationship between the individual and society within the tension between attraction and resistance, between beauty and violence, while raising the question: where is the justice for the people whose land, labour and lives are continually extracted in the name of progress?

About the artist
Ndidi Dike is an artist and cultural activist, born in London and educated at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In 2016, Dike was an IASPIS fellow in Gothenburg. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, she has exhibited internationally at venues and biennials including Jogja Biennale, Sonsbeek, Dak’Art, Lagos Biennial and South London Gallery. Her works are held in numerous public and private collections worldwide. As one of Nigeria’s leading contemporary artists, Dike explores themes such as the history of the slave trade, collective and personal archives, ecological destruction, and the consequences of global extractive industries in the form of conflict, displacement and humanitarian crises.

In connection with Rare Earth Rare Justice, a catalogue will be published featuring essays by curators Adelaide Bannerman and Osei Bonsu, a conversation with the artist, and an artist statement.

Exhibition period: August 28–November 22
Inauguration: August 28, 17.00–20.00
For mor information, pressmaterial and interview requests (Ndidi Dike is available for interviews August 13–30):
beatrice@fargfabriken.se