Of interest to our NYC-dwelling readers: Tomorrow, Thursday, April 8, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm there will be an artist’s reception & book signing for Pieter Hugo’s exhibition at the Yossi Milo Gallery at 525 West 25th Street. The show will be on view through April 17th.

Hugo will be signing copies of his amazing book Nollywood book. Tara and I have a copy of this on our coffee table and we both really love it.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Nollywood: Nightmarish Photographs by Pieter Hugo

Wow!

The Nigerian feature film industry is sometimes known as Nollywood. Here’s Pieter Hugo’s inspiration for the spectacular images of The Cinema of Nigeria:

In his travels through West Africa, Hugo has been intrigued by this distinct style in constructing a fictional world where everyday and unreal elements intertwine.

By asking a team of actors and assistants to recreate Nollywood myths and symbols as if they were on movie sets, Hugo initiated the creation of a verisimilar reality.

His vision of the film industry?��Ǩ�Ѣs interpretation of the world results in a gallery of hallucinatory and unsettling images.

The tableaux of the series depict situations clearly surreal but that could be real on a set; furthermore, they are rooted in the local symbolic imaginary. The boundaries between documentary and fiction become very fluid, and we are left wondering whether our perceptions of the real world are indeed real.

Pieter Hugo

(via today and tomorrow)