The Flesh is Here but the Soul is Gone

Fikayo Adebajo’s photographic series explores the dislocation and disembodiment of the postcolonial individual, haunted by ghosts of Empire's past. Using Yoruba worldsense, which unifies the body, soul, and spirit, the artwork addresses the internal fragmentation imposed by European colonialism and the Cartesian mind-body divide. The series evokes a magical realist lens, following otherworldly figures contained within the Egúngún as they navigate through the unfamiliar context of a neoliberal, postcolonial world. Each image chronicles the displacement of each fragment of the individual in ọrùn (the world of spirit), Ilé (the earthworld) and Aiye (the physical world of living beings).