Voicemail

Voicemail
2025
16 mm
Runtime(5 mins 26 secs )
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The central protagonist of Voicemail is the phone. A conversation happens between voicemail audio from the artist’s late mother and the transcription of his silent response in the transcribed subtitles. The dialogue centers around missed calls, unanswered texts, busy schedules, and the concerns of a loving parent. Tinubu goes through various states in the video, from gleefully picking up the landline to slamming the receiver down, from enjoying a party-like setting to dreadfully painting on an easel. At some points in the background audio, we hear drowning and gasps for air. Essentially, a whirlwind of life is occurring against the backdrop of an unanswered mother’s voice. At the end of the video, we hear the dial tone and spiel of a disconnected phone, to which Tinubu panics while sporting a monkey mask he cannot remove. His silhouette eventually consumes the camera, bringing the audio to a silence and the work to a close. Throughout the film, Tinubu wears a white outfit, reminiscent of Yoruba tradition to wear all white to a funeral. - Emma Huerta