Best known for drawings that use distinctively layered mark-making to highlight topographies of skin and surface, Toyin Ojih Odutola is a storyteller who often presents her work in graphic narrative cycles. For this publication, entitled Satellite, Ojih Odutola reflects on the speculative fiction of Octavia E. Butler and the poetry of Dionne Brand to explore a future haunted by human-driven environmental changes. Set in the year 2050 in geological age the artist calls Anthropocene, in Eko — the traditional Yoruba name for today’s Lagos, Nigeria — Satellite invites us to explore the contours of African and other global futures. Through configurations of home, community and the corporeal, a new awareness emerges.

Produced on the occasion of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s New Work show at SFMOMA (fourth floor), on view through January 22nd, 2023.