Ndayé Kouagou's 'Direction, Direction?' Explores Unreality at Sundy, London

Ndayé Kouagou's exhibition 'Direction, Direction?' at Sundy, London, delves into the unreality of online living, self-fashioning, and limitless content consumption. The show features a text printed on aluminium sheets covering the gallery walls, instructing viewers to look elsewhere for direction. A central piece is the short film 'A coin is a coin' (2022), where Kouagou, dressed in a grey couture suit with a baby-yellow shirt and oversized necktie, delivers a monologue dubbed by a female American voice. The film uses a two-sided coin as a metaphor for change, with Kouagou interrupting himself to cast doubt or apologize playfully. The space also includes text on clear PVC surfaces over resin-sealed colored fabric, some nailed to reflective aluminium. Kouagou's performance mimics a guru-therapist YouTube vlogger, a role he has inhabited in recent shows at London's Gathering and Paris's Fondation Louis Vuitton. The aesthetic of unreality is heightened by dubbed speech, high frame-rate camerawork, and trapped air bubbles in PVC evoking ice. Despite the controlled artifice, the work invites viewers into a maze of questions without resolution. The exhibition runs through 27 May.