Main content

Gabriel Gbadamosi

Playwright and broadcaster Gabriel Gbadamosi considers the meaning of the male nude in African art from ancient Yoruba ritual to the present day.

The male nude in Africa is a vexed, political question. So its perhaps inevitable that the writer and broadcaster, Gabriel Gbadamosi has chosen an olblique, provocative approach to the subject. Drawing on his Yoruba and Irish roots, for the third part of Men Only: An informal History of the Male Nude, he journeys from South London to Nigeria and back again slowly uncovering pleasure as well as paradox. At the beginning and at the end of his exploration he comes face to face with the phallic, trickster god, Eshu - a being at work in traditional sculpture as well as in the photography of the Brixton-based Rotimi Fani-Kayode.

Producer: Zahid Warley

First broadcast in February 2012.

Available now

15 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 22 Feb 2012 22:45
  • Wed 12 Jun 2013 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast