This episode features artist Brandon Ndife in conversation about his work "A Master’s Tools" (2022). Brandon Ndife’s works merge interior and exterior worlds, often breaking open hand-built domestic objects to reveal an undergrowth of organic forms.
Born in Hammond, Indiana, to Nigerian and Barbadian parents, Ndife's interest in the arts began at a young age, sparked while attending a high school for the arts and developed during his undergraduate education at the Cooper Union. At the Cooper Union in 2012, Ndife witnessed the upheaval and destruction brought by Hurricane Sandy to New York. The pervasive sight of discarded furniture left to the elements of natural disaster shifted Ndife‘s artistic focus, bringing themes of domesticity, commodification, decay, and environmental crisis to the forefront of his work. Ndife builds objects that share an uncanny resemblance to found second-hand furnishings and organic matter such as fruit, tree branches, and soil.
https://www.studiomuseum.org/artists/brandon-ndife
https://www.studiomuseum.org/artworks/a-masters-tools
What is New Additions by the Studio Museum in Harlem?
Introducing the Studio Museum in Harlem’s first podcast: New Additions. This series features intimate conversations with artists whose work has been recently added to the Studio Museum’s permanent collection. Hosted by Studio Museum Senior Curatorial Assistant Habiba Hopson, New Additions brings in artists at a pivotal moment in their career to discuss their path to artmaking, their process in the studio, their dreams and inspirations, and how they start each day. Each episode reveals how the artist's work and practice shapes their world and in doing so, shapes ours.
Listen in as they dive into a diverse array of subject matter confronting their lives as artists.