“I think what artists do is open different portals,” says the Nigerian-born Otobong Nkanga. “It makes us understand that we are not just an entity on our own. It makes us understand the repetitions over time.” Nkanga uses performance, sculpture, drawing, and installations to explore complicated ecological and economic processes. She reflects on postcolonial histories and the mechanisms that define modern life, because she believes these forces and the human body are interdependent. In this exhibition, which followed an in-house residency at Gropius Bau in 2019, Nkanga’s carefully crafted metal structures explore exploitative extraction processes. —E.C.