Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Visions of Power

Zadie Smith | The New Yorker | 10th August 2020

What would a civilization look like where “imperious” females ruled over subservient male drones? Ojih Odutola’s “magnificent” cycle of charcoal drawings, currently showing in London, provides an answer. Her women have the “muscular, dynamic allure of Greek warriors” and strike confident poses, while the males are featureless. Real life analogies abound, particularly the “mutual melancholy that pervades asymmetric relationships of power.” Images are here.