nigerian born, uk based artist, olaoluslawn’s underground Fight club.
PHOTO BY FINLAY FLINT
olaoluslawn might be one of the most influential figures in recent years of pop-culture. while his fuckery could easily be misprecieved as, well, fuckery, i believe slawn represents a very important narrative as a young african artist.
slawn represents a demographic of young black artists that found a way to do what they love in a way that works for them and doesn’t need to comply with the standards set by the existing walls or boundaries. the space that young black artists—like slawn—occupy within pop culture has been very much inspired by black influential figures across pop-culture history, from jean-michel basquiat to the late virgil abloh, to name a few.
the freedom expressed through the work of these historical figures is something you can clearly see being passed on to young african artists, not only in slawn’s work but in the way he lives his life too. he is also very aware of the influence he holds, he even refers to himself as a cult leader and uses social media to mostly carry out the fuckery i mentioned earlier, among which is his infamous fight club.
we got our first taste of Olaoluslawn’s ‘fight’ club when slawn posted a video of some london locals (@ccobz x @whosssdk) throwing hands in his studio with the caption “got niggas fighting for the art now, what else is there to do?”
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At first glance whatever's going on here doesN't sEem to be organized in any sense but this was only the beginning of recurring Battle Royals for the prize of an art piece by the orchestratOr himself.
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This might seem like quite a chaotic setup and maybe just a little too hectic for a couple of art piece GiveAways, but i think it’s a take on a ‘revolution’ of sorts. the art world has become generic in how it operates; With galleries and auctioneers as the most direct access to the market. olaoluslawn sells his art through his InstaGram stories directly to the people.
He uses the fights as an ANARCHIC WAY OF MARKETING HIS ‘IG AUCTIONS’ And i think that’s insanely genius, how he’s cut out the middle man by directly penetrating a market of customers that wouldn’t otherwise purchase the art, had it been in a gallery in the first placE.
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