BACKGROUND CHARACTERS: JOHAN SAMBONÍ AND THE POLITICS OF SAN ANDREAS

A dark-skinned avatar, seen from behind in a white tank top, sits exactly where the polished concrete floor meets a painted horizon. In front of him the city has slipped its grid. Freeway ramps float at odd angles, billboards hang without supports, staircases rise into nothing. Between fragments of stucco houses and palm trees, the raw white of the gallery wall cuts through like unrendered polygons. To the left, a large canvas interrupts this broken panorama: four young men took control of a white Google car: three are defiantly sitting on the roof, and one is flipping the bird, smiling irreverently at the audience. Across the hood, hastily painted letters spell out Aquí manda el barrio, “the neighbourhood is in charge”, a message intended to the Silicon Valley colonizer.

Nearby, a skeletal metal structure draped with rust-coloured fabric depicting eyes, moths, and ears suggests a makeshift shelter, barricade or street stall, collapsing the language of protest into the cool space of the institution.

This is a recurring motif in Johan Samboní’s recent installations and paintings. 

Working with scenes from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), the Cali-born Afro-Indigenous artist...