At a glance
Sculptures mimicking depleted-uranium shells are painted in national flag colors, connecting the history of extraction and warfare to the symbols of the United States and Africa.
Meet the artist
Why go
This solo installation offers a sharp critique of geopolitics, using clean, modernist aesthetics to expose the underlying links between nuclear energy, military power, and colonial resource exploitation.
You'll see
Shell-shaped sculptures · African and US flags · Geometric color fields · Archival documentation
Pace of visit
The show is small in scale but rewards time spent deciphering the political implications behind its minimalist forms.
Don't miss
The integration of African national flags into the sculptures, which highlights specific histories of mining and trade often left out of Western narratives.
Artlovers Tip
Look into the history of uranium supply chains before visiting; understanding where these materials originate adds significant weight to the polished, colorful surfaces of the sculptures.
Inside the exhibition
Stars and Stripes — Coumba Samba at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan, USA, presents a focused solo installation that interrogates the relationship between national identity and global resource extraction. Samba uses the visual language of modernist abstraction to ground complex geopolitical realities in physical form.
The exhibition features a series of sculptures shaped like depleted-uranium shells, finished in the distinct colors and geometric patterns of the United States flag alongside those of five African nations. By combining these military forms with archival references, the artist traces the movement of materials from colonial mines to the front lines of modern warfare and nuclear power plants.
This presentation marks a significant entry for Samba at the Whitney, highlighting how contemporary sculpture can address systemic issues without sacrificing aesthetic precision. It offers a rare opportunity to see how the histories of African mineral wealth and American military infrastructure are physically and symbolically intertwined.
Worth travelling for?
An incisive, intellectually dense installation that provides a sharp perspective on global power for visitors interested in how contemporary art tackles political history.
Stars and Stripes — Coumba Samba
Artlovers relevance
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