Johannesburg-based painter and filmmaker Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi presents a multi-site video and multimedia artwork titled Equations for a Body at Rest, which tracks the history and symbolic presentation of the Commonwealth Games (and, by association, the Commonwealth body itself) from its genesis in empire to the current day. Has the changing public face of the Games corresponded to equivalent changes at an anatomical level? What are the implications for all those participating in the Games today?

Equations for a Body at Rest has two components, ‘The Same Track’ and ‘The Name Game’, each working in concert with the other. Together they form a public work in video, print and online. Spread across the city, within community groups and on large screens, posters and billboards, Nkosi’s works speak to the institutional exploitations and desires of a white Commonwealth geo-political-industrial complex.

The Name Game takes the form of a series of street posters placed on six prominent billboard sites throughout the city. Each poster, reminiscent of historical Games posters such as the style of the 1938 “Empire Games”, has been redrawn and painted by Nkosi to tell of the current Games here in Birmingham.

Screenings

Monday 11 July - Sunday 24 July, available 24/7 at:

  • Barford Street Right, 10 Barford Street, B5 6AG
  • Custard Factory Car Park, High Street, Deritend, B9 4AA
  • Chester Road Station, Erdington Chester Road, B73 5JS
  • Bradford Street, Digbeth, Bradford Street Canal, B12 0QY
  • Bristol Road, Selly Oak, 676 Bristol Road, B29 6BJ
  • Golden Hillock Road, Small Heath, 245 Golden Hillock Road, B11 2PJ

Website: eastsideprojects.org

Generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, Arts Council England and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.