Toronto based artist, Ekow Nimako, has completed his most ambitious cityscape to date. Constructed from 100,000 sleek black LEGO pieces, “Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE”, is Nimako’s 2019 reimagining of the capital city of the ancient Ghanaian empire.
The 30-square-foot structure envisions the medieval city in the year 2030. In his artist statement, Ekow explains that his work “seeks to reclaim histories, reconcile ancestral traumas and imagine liberated futures for all African peoples.”
Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE is a response to the Fragments in Time exhibition; which explored how western Africa was the cultural and economic heart of the world during the medieval period. “The Afrofuturistic sculpture is situated within the genre’s celebration and reimagination of a Blackness that is not constructed against the backdrop of enslavement, colonization, and violence,”
You can check out a time-lapse of the sculpture’s construction, as well as some close-ups, below. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, to stay up to date with the latest Art news.
