Now is not the time economically to be switching jobs or creative fields, but that hardly seems to concern the artist Godelive Kasangati Kabena. Brilliant and unconstrained, she moves fluidly across disciplines, able to shapeshift at any moment into a blacksmith, glassblower, writer, photographer, performer, or even become the very medium through which the work is presented publicly in artistic spaces. The epitome of interdisciplinary artistry, not creative hustling. Since 2021, when she relocated from the Congo to Kumasi, Ghana, to pursue her studies in art, Godelive’s creative evolution as a consciously curious artist has been truly remarkable to witness. With each exhibition, she reveals an increasingly precise awareness of both subcultural and mainstream political systems and processes, including the environmental and psychologically constructed structures that influence our everyday life. In this rare and really expansive conversation with us at Random Photo Journal, Godelive reveals more of herself further, demonstrating why artists and curators alike trust her to articulate, interpret, and reimagine both art and the artistic process. The nitty-grittiness of her work reflects a deep attentiveness to how Africans, humans and the animals they chose to keep alike interact with their environments. Her practice persistently investigates how intercultural systems operate, how they migrate across borders, and whether the structures that govern them function effectively or converge meaningfully. Her engagement and research, and final presentation of the Basenji dog, offer a compelling example of this attentiveness. In this interview, we explore how her perspective on the Basenji becomes a niche yet expansive guide to understanding how an artistic idea should be groomed, researched, created, defined and presented. 

On the importance of having conversations in art spaces, it is nice to know that the Basenji dog chronicle started from a simple exchange between Godelive and her curator friend Jean Kamba. 

For some like us, just a mention of the Basenji reveals an unexpectedly vast historical trail, stretching from the Congo to ancient Egypt, through the Niger Expedition of 1841, and into the life of Prince Owusu-Ansa of the Gold Coast. Through this exploration, Godelive demonstrates that rigorous thought, like meaningful art, is rooted in curious and obsessive inquiry, affirming art’s essential role in human development. It is obvious that Godelive’s artistic practices are concerned with the political act of creating, archiving, and circulating images of both human and non-human bodies. Working across smithing, glassblowing, performance, installation, and photography, she carefully examines how images move through social, ecological, and institutional frameworks, and how, in turn, they shape our perception and understanding. Through ongoing investigative research, she remains grounded in the foundational ideology of photography while simultaneously expanding the forms and directions through which her ideas are expressed. This evolution has enabled her to develop a more nuanced and assertive artistic language, one that is intellectually rigorous and deeply responsive to the shifting contexts in which her work exists.

Godelive Kasangati Kabena (b. 1996, Democratic Republic of Congo) graduated in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, where she began developing her photographic practice. In 2017, she participated in a two-year photography training course initiated by EUNIC-RDC, the Goethe Institute of Kinshasa. Kabena currently lives and works between Kinshasa and Kumasi, where she continues her studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

A simple reference to the Basenji dog quickly sends one down an unexpectedly long historical trail, into ancient Egypt, the Niger Expedition of 1841, and even to the life of Prince Owusu‑Ansa of the Gold Coast. Your work seems to emerge from similarly deep investigations. Thinking back to the very first moment the Basenji entered your thinking: where were you, and what sparked the curiosity that eventually grew into a body of artistic research and installations?

It’s important for me to respond to this first question because in 2019, I went to the Bamako Biennale, which opened for me this place of potentiality in relation to photography. And I remember when I went back to Congo, I decided to work on a new body of work. And this body of work was quite an image of animals’ bodies with the human body together. And this curator from Congo, he’s called Jean Kamba, saw that work and he asked me, Godelive, I’ve seen your work, and it’s really interesting. Do you know about the Basenji dog? Maybe you can dig into it. And I look at him, and I was like, I don’t know about the Basenji dog. What is that dog? He told me, “Oh, it’s good if you can go online and look into the history of this dog.” And I was like, “Yes, thank you.” And I remember I went online and I realised, like, yes, the dog really exists. And I didn’t know about it. And I tried to find some archival images because I was like, if it’s a dog from Congo, but I don’t know about it. I’ve never seen it on the street. But the one I’m seeing on the street. Look like it maybe it is but i don’t know and I wanted to to check then i realized like online i couldn’t have found so many images of this dog and then i started just randomly writing to few museum that i could find emails online And African Museum sent me some of the pictures and I think Britain Museum, I’m not yet sure, I have to check it out. But the one that became important for me is from the African Museum, which I started to look into and was like, oh, this dog is quite peculiar for me. I never knew about this dog. And when I went back online again, I could read about the dog, its expedition to England in the 19th century, the club, the club that was built and created in England at the same time, I think in the 20th century. I think some of the clubs were built in England because the dog became something that English people really liked and preferred. It’s a gentle dog that doesn’t bark. And also some of the link that came into my attention is the relation to the presence of the dog in the pyramids in Egypt, and also this hypothesis of thinking that this dog could move from Egypt to migrate to Congo. And for me, it became interesting just looking into this connection and this link between this dog. And also, what became most interesting for me was to just imagine this dog in the colonial period, because I was wondering what could have happened to this dog that is not too present in the Congo community. And I remember the first work I did was in relation to that, responding to the absence of this dog in the communities. And how this absence itself could be dramatic. But at the same time, after a while, I thought it was a really good perspective on the dog itself, what has happened to the breed itself in terms of its evolution in time. And I remember taking so many pictures of dogs on the street because some of the characteristics of this Basenji dog can be seen on the street. Then I asked a veterinarian about the dog. And they were like, no, God, leave the picture you took. I’m not a Basenji dog. And for me, it became then and again interesting for me to go and dig into what the Basenji dog looked like. So then archival images themselves became so interesting for me at that moment because then it gave me time to think if this dog lived during the colonial period, it’s it means a lot not only for me looking into the dog history but the dog itself and the other layer was to think about another layer of it it’s a hunting dog so it had really close relation to the family the family house and for me it became another perspective on me on looking how the relationship changing between congolese population and this dog but also in general, how this relation to the possibility of working with this dog could have changed because of extraction and colonial period, which could be part of the work itself, but I think it’s interesting because it could have been a starting point for me, not really as an exploration of the work now and how I’m dealing with the work at the moment. But I think all those links for me or information became then a place that I could start really digging into the dog body itself, the dog experience in time, and also these images themselves as objects and what they could offer to me.

In your Louis Vuitton Rice installation, rice becomes more than a material; it feels almost symbolic. What drew you to rice specifically, and what possibilities did it open up conceptually that another medium might not have offered?

The little bit doesn’t rise itself, as an object, is really crucial for me and also as a point in time. Uh, in terms of the production of this work, it positions itself as an important object. While I was dealing with the dog research, about its presence and the possibility of me digging into a historical event, there was also the idea that these archive materials could, at first, stabilise the idea of holism that a picture is always accused of. Because a picture sometimes is accused of being whole, being a container, being that object that has to be seen, to be completed, or being seen to live. And for me, I thought this would be really interesting, that these pictures themselves could have opened that layer of discussion where a picture ceased to be a container but became this dynamic place. And if it becomes this dynamic place, then what could it become in terms of a picture?

Secondly, if we cannot see this picture as a whole, it can also be seen as parts, but how these parts themselves function. And I remember that I was really dealing with the picture of this dog when I first produced this body of work. And I thought that this relation to me being interested in this picture could have been maybe another way of thinking of reproducing this picture because I was cutting them, chopping them in between and creating these mimic collages. For me, the idea of reproducing or proposing the other became interesting for me in terms of these pictures themselves as parts, but not as a whole only. But then I realised that maybe I could think about how reproducing this image could be a language not for me, but for the picture itself and how the picture could be reproduced. But it’s also whether the picture could be reproduced, what it means for the picture itself and the one that is reproduced. And um, the idea became then that if I cannot reproduce this picture as a picture. It could propose an image. And if it’s proposing an image. It’s already a political stance for the picture itself and the image that is reproduced.

And for me, the relation in between this process of reproducing this image became interesting because it’s open a layer to the object themselves and how they reproduce and which argument, they are creating in this, in this manner, and how this perspective itself of reproducing this picture, creates a self-reference show, perspective on the, on the picture, which uh, itself, not always as a contain but as a dynamic place and the image, which is reproduced and is building this argument for its own, even if you have to be seen or not, but this argument that is building. For me, at the end of the day, it removed the measurement of value in terms of it being on the same value. Or it being more done the other, but not even if bringing that conversation of putting them on the value of a measurement in terms of an object, but how themselves can propose an idea of a counter, a Germanical perspective on the idea of the picture itself, which doesn’t stay a picture, but become an image, which doesn’t have a center, perspective on existence. But how it creates this peripheral perspective on itself, which doesn’t need to be acknowledged or seen, but can be, can exist in terms of the object itself, which proposes a new argument. And, and then this Louis Vuitton rice that I saw in one of the small shops just close to my house is called “My Louis Vuitton rice”. It’s not Louis Vuitton rice, and for me, mine, my Louis Vuitton rice became interesting, just mine, because it reflects to the idea of the picture that I was talking earlier, which cannot only be seen as a whole because it self disrupted the idea of whole itself, and it can be seen as parts because if it cease to be a container and be this dynamic person, then hit on itself, denying the idea of being a whole. And I think this Louis Vuitton rice did itself, it denied to be a whole because it is My Louis Vuitton rice and proposes a kind of idea of the holism, but itself, it denied to be a whole and proposes this idea of fact. For me, it became interesting to look at how this object could be proposing this perspective on myself and also how it could be seen as a reproduced picture of the Basenji dog. Because when I’m thinking about a reproduced image which becomes the other, for me, that other is an autonomous entity which doesn’t only have to be a picture that presents itself as accurate as a presence. But here, an image presents itself as a phenomenon or as an argument. And for me, that became interesting to have this picture of the Basenji dog being reproduced, not as a picture, but as an image, and at the same time, this way of being reproduced, they become the other, and become the, in the argument, or they became the event, and they become this image which can referred to the Basenji dog, yes, or no, but also can propose themselves as objects themselves. And I think for me, that became interesting to look at these images and pictures, play in between, for themselves, not only when they are, they are projected, uh, when our ideas are projected on them.

One way to read the Basenji reference in your work is as a metaphor for the layered usefulness or meaning of things and objects, people, histories, and even animals. Does that interpretation resonate with your intentions? And perhaps just as interestingly, what are some of the more unexpected interpretations audiences have brought to your installation?

Yeah, for me, I think the Basenji dog is quite like a starting point where I’m dealing with a few of the interesting forms and shapes that I’ve been seeing on the Basenji dog body, which itself can translate into many layers, especially when we talk to the public. Normally, when work is already presented to the public, it’s out of the artist’s hands, which I think is really interesting because they are images which can be anything. They are not something that has to be completed by a viewer. They can build any argument from any way. And for myself, I think it’s interesting because when I was looking at the Basenji itself, I remembered that I was even thinking about how the Basenji female can be in heat. And how she can release the pheromone, and how she wears, how much she wears, and also the ears and the tail. And some of these thoughts became interesting because some of them allowed me to build objects that couldn’t respond to the shape and form as a reproduced form, which could only refer to the dog, but how they could respond to the idea of the whole and part. And some of the structure of the work I’ve been creating, for me, they were always maybe responding to how I can create a structure which will lead to a shape and all this form, all this structure that’s created could matter, yes or no, but how this small shape itself became a way to respond to the idea of the whole and the part itself. And sometimes, how this pheromone release of the passenger female became a way to think about smell or pheromone as an image. But if it’s an image, how could this perspective be experienced by the public? And I remembered building this structure with plastic sheets and with a sauna stove, which was responding to this. And for me, I thought this perspective became interesting not only for the work to grow, but myself to think about how many possibilities this idea of thinking about this dog could offer in terms of production. And, as well, the historical perspective on the dog became interesting for me. Going back to the time that this picture was taken in Congo, what it could mean not only for me, but for the dog itself to live in the houses, to be in the city, and its relation to hunting behavior could have changed because maybe it couldn’t have continued to go and go with hunters to hunt stuff but they have to stay on different locations in the city and then for me it became really interesting to think about the dog in that perspective but at the same time it could open as well this perspective for me because I am looking really into how reproduction itself historically could have shifted many things in terms of art making, in terms of distribution, in terms of display, how reproduction itself have challenged so many things, maybe in the early 1700s or maybe before that, but also even before the human experience into the earth production itself is the is the phenomenon which human discovered at certain point in time but is something that is beyond the human perspective because it’s not only human is really can be anti-human post-human transhuman can be anything and it’s really for me a place to think how reproduction itself has always been a place for discussion. And some of this perspective can also be discussed in terms of the creation of the earth itself, the Big Bang in terms of reproduction, So for me, I think as well that this dog has opened this perspective on thinking of reproduction in different ways, not only in terms of image making, but in terms of perspective or ideas or relation to objects themselves.

I forgot to respond to the last question of the third question, the unexpected interpretation of the audience towards my work. Or maybe once I was in Gabon. And one of the people told me that my work was a scam because he could have seen, like other people, really worked hard, but what he was saying was just an umbrella, the rope and the kaolin, and this turning and for him, that work couldn’t have been a work of art, but it was a scam. I think I laughed about it. But I do not really recall the unexpected interpretation of the work. But that one was maybe the most prominent for me.

Sex and sexuality appear within the conceptual terrain of your work in ways that feel both deliberate and destabilising. How do these themes intersect with the broader questions you’re asking through your practice?

Sexuality in this work has always been something subtle, not really outspoken. But sometimes people think that the relation to sexuality comes from the image where I wore the telly kind of object on my back. And then people think maybe that’s what I put as a relation to sexuality, but really not. The sexuality perspective in this work could start from where I was interested in the pheromone release because the female releases the pheromone when she’s in heat, so it’s a signal to the male Basenji that she’s ready to have any encounter. So that is where it comes from, actually and for me, that place of image making is sexual. And sexual, not in terms of it being experienced as an image, as I answered earlier, like I create this structure where there’s a sauna-like stove when you enter inside, you are sweating and everything. And for me, that to think about the sexuality and that experience, that heat, to translate the heat of the Basenji female as a heat for me became interesting because when you enter this room, you are sweating, your body is responding to it, but also it doesn’t respond to it because the room is meant for human only or is not also a negation to the human presence, but the room itself is meant to discuss this idea of how a picture, what a picture could become. And in this room, sometimes there’s pheromone, synthetic pheromones that are created to calm dogs. And sometimes there are essential oils to simulate this pheromone release because the male has to sense it. And sometimes this is not reflected in the human presence or feeling and smelling, but how this idea of the image could propose this perspective on this self-referential perspective. But for me, it became a place to think about the sexuality of the Basenji dog. And then the image that I sent, which can… And directly or obviously talk about sexuality, it became interesting because I remember when I produced this work in Burkina Faso in 2024, I was in residency at Village Opera, and I worked with this local foundry where we cast this aluminium, recycled aluminium. And I had three of them, three of almost the same shape but different in some way. I had two ideas how to display the two and the one I didn’t really know how because I wanted something to speak to me and because for me displays are really interesting in terms of reproduction but because the production itself could come with this idea of display and display not only in terms of art making when we imagine in terms of exhibition making but It comes off a display in terms of events. And these events are not always be seen by people. It can be in terms of reaction or effect, which are not maybe also the effect itself, but anything. It can be about when maybe you are experiencing the thing, but before you experience that thing, a display was already there. Maybe what you are seeing is the effect of this display. And I thought like my body was maybe could have been another place to display the work. So for me, being in that position, it was for me to display the work on my back. But at the end of the day, there’s an idea of me being a woman. And how my body itself could have been, I mean, it comes from the politics of women’s bodies being seen naked. And for me, it was quite a language because I was like, yes, my body now is functioning as a display tool, which at the same time comes with this idea of me being seen naked. And I think it was interesting for me to look at how this display itself could also open other conversations beyond maybe only the object itself, but how the object itself could be seen and problematized in terms of display.

Your exhibitions and residencies suggest a practice grounded in research, curiosity, and long-term observation. Given the many places you could have chosen to live or study, what drew you specifically to Kumasi? What did that environment make possible for you as an artist?

If I can talk about the research, two or three years ago, a senior of mine, who is called Tracy Thompson. She’s a Ghanaian artist. She mentioned her perspective on research, and she said she thinks research is not always when we dig into books, and I don’t know what dramatic layer to it sometimes she thinks maybe just chatting with friends that could be research and it’s true could it could be true for me because i remember some of the time my friend would be asking me Godelive why are you dealing with the basenji dog and sometimes after a while and then they’ll come back be like oh Godelive is again about the basenji he’ll be like yeah and sometimes they will laugh they’ll be like godly um they’re not laughing because the thing is negative but just don’t understand maybe why i will be dealing with this dog since many years and for me those questions have been relevant because it always stick in my mind why the basenji dog then because i’m just interested by this dog even if it’s the starting point but really i’m really interested by this dog anyway and for me again this perspectives of maybe of shape and form and how I’m addressing these ideas, they were shaped as well because of my my schooling at Kwame Nkrumah University in Science and Technology and being part of the painting and sculpture department, which works hand-to-hand with the Black Star lines, I think some of the perspective on the object became interesting for me when I read Karika Chassidu’s teasers. He was discussing the tomato box that was sold, still sold at Aluga Junction. It’s one of the junctions when you are going to Kejetia or Edum. And these tomato boxes are always there, and with these marks on them, maybe the name of the owner or something like that. And for him, these tomato boxes were so interesting as objects themselves because they could disrupt many things in terms of art making, in terms of the measurement of value, maybe on the object, but how the object themselves propose argument. And for me, that idea became interesting in shaping this idea of the Basenji dog itself as a body, but also this image and these pictures, sorry, themselves as objects could offer.

Another layer is also, for me, I remember when I moved from Congo in 2021 and coming to Ghana, it was a new environment because I could see again some of the dogs which look like Basenji dogs, which are not, because also this opened a layer to think about different African dogs which quite share a region, but also how I could think about the relation between this race of dog breed in Africa.

I think it was specific for me to come to Kumasi because when I left Congo in 2021, before leaving Congo, I met Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh in Bamako and I could send him some emails, and when I wanted to move from Congo to another country, because I wanted to continue my study, but I didn’t want to go to Europe, I remember asking Kwasi if he knew any art school in Africa where I could study, because actually I wanted to study art history. And he could tell me, but not in Europe, and in Anglophone countries as well, because English for me was important for me to also learn the language. English language and he told me that there was a school in Kumasi where I could go and study and for me I was like yeah I need a new life, a new perspective on my work and I decided to move from Congo to Ghana and I stayed in Accra for a while and when I came to Kumasi to school is where many things also shifted because Kumasi Art School or the department actually of painting or sculpture it really pays in collective perspective on not only on human engagement but also in production and that have shifted so many things in my way of practicing and how the idea of being a community not only because you have been helped have to be acknowledge about how the relation into artist and artist studio function because you can meet visit your artist friend and the discussion that you have it’s quite also open because you are kind of talking to your brother. You’re not talking to a curator who’s coming to visit you, but you’re talking to someone who can be vulnerable to you, who can tell you about what they think about their work, what they think about your work, but also it’s not only in terms of the market, not in terms of how big you are, but which possibility can be possible in this place. So there are so many layers that have shifted my perspective, especially being in Kumasi, and also the response to what production means for each of us here.

Looking at the trajectory of your work so far, one gets the sense that these projects might only represent the beginning of a much larger inquiry. Do you feel that what we’ve seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg?

I really don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. I think there’s so much time to discover in the future. If they would, it was like a tip of an iceberg, or it was an iceberg itself, I really don’t know, but I’m really uh me and interested to see this work again, maybe in the future and see what it would look like. I’m excited myself. I think it’s challenging work for me. And I think I’m just looking forward because I cannot put it on the level of measurement in terms of how the inquiry could be or how it could be proposed. But I just think there’s an excitement, rather, that maybe there’s an iceberg of excitement, but what you are seeing is maybe just a tip of the excitement of working on this project.

Are there particular artists, whether in photography, performance, or installation, whose work has shaped or challenged your own thinking? And also after years of performances, exhibitions, and international residencies, do you feel that audiences are receiving your work in the way you hope? In other words, do you feel seen and heard through your art?

For, I think, at least three or four years, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh’s work has been important for me, specifically his argument on possibilities and pedagogy. And there are also two of my friends, close friends, Edward Prah and Abbey IT-A. Edward is an artist from Ghana, and Abbey as well, who, at the same time, is using a curatorial strategy as a way of production. And these two people have been so relevant to me. I remember my last residency as if I had a three-year residency. Because everything could have been happening at the same time, producing, sharing content, then ordering things for me from online, knowing what I need, sending me propositions, and all those things. And this friend and the way that they carry my work is as if it’s their work, and it’s so interesting for me because that for me became relevant in terms of my work and how it’s growing. And you have Hassan Issah, who’s a Ghanaian artist as well. I like his approach to objects, to shape, and his relationship to the city because for him the city becomes this huge site where he usually responds to, and Ibrahim Mahama as well, maybe it’s not, maybe in terms of how his work looks, the materiality of the work, but also the intentionality that he has put into his production. Because I remember when he had the exhibition at the fruit market in Scotland, He asked me if I would like to write an essay about his work. For me, I was like, what? I mean, writing about Ibrahim Mahama, this artist is really important in the world. I mean, for me, it was just at this place, because when I read the message, I was like, oh my God, really? Can I do so? And I remember texting him and telling him, like, I know it’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be a challenge for me, but I would like to do so. And for me, it was his attitude towards me, towards this young artist writing an essay about his work. And for me, it was interesting because it reflected again on the possibilities that are you… Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh is proposing something in his work because this trust that Ibrahim gave me for me it was that place of you know of rethinking even if my position as a young artist working and which kind of work I can produce which this work could have been maybe an important essay so for me it’s sometimes this attitude as well which became so interesting into my work and then it it grew it growth and as well there’s also this perspective for the audience that you were asking about how the audience take my work because i think there’s one question actually that i really liked. Sometimes people ask me multiple times, Where is the dog? And I think that question has been so much in my brain because I’m like, yeah, so where is the dog then? And sometimes the response will be, maybe it’s not about the dog, maybe it’s not about the image, maybe it’s not about the picture as well, maybe it’s about something. That could be, maybe in between all of this, maybe the objects themselves. But this one is a way I loved responding to this question. For me, that is so interesting to hear that from the audience, because it has already been shaped. Some of the responses to this are my production itself. I don’t know if this work is received the way I would like it to be received, because I really don’t mind how it’s received.