This publication has been written for Coumba Samba’s first solo exhibition with Arcadia Missa in London, Red Gas. The room is filled with painted radiators, each a different color, carrying its own reference and agenda. Playing with the objecthood of the artwork on one hand and the politicization of colors on the other. When looking at works within the room, they could be reduced to pieces of metal covered in paint, minimalist and empty. But western emptiness has always come at a price. A wide reshuffling is happening in the global trade of natural resources, one of these resources is gas. With the sanctions on Russia, the West is looking for alternatives. A moment which exposes the worst of capitalist reality. Western Africa is expected to have large scale natural reserves of gas that have never been mined as well as Nigeria, which lacks a pipeline to north of Africa where it could be further transported to Europe. The question now standing is where will the investments come from, with the Western countries and Russia both getting exceedingly involved and cold war tactics slowly resurfacing. Russia has long used anti-colonial propaganda to further it’s relationship with Africa, both during the Soviet Union and today.
