Saturday 27 September 2014

For Adejumo, creating art comes first, identity later


By Tajudeen Sowole
 When an artist is webbed in dual characters as Olusegun Adejumo is, the search for identity takes the backseat and best left for the future to decide. Adejumo's practice exudes that of a painter in the day and sculptor at night. 

Also, to many of his followers, he is a full-time studio artist. But he is a quiet and natural teacher who takes time off the practicality of the palette to engage in teaching through workshops and seminars. And when the occasion arises at gatherings or on social media, he argues fiercely in support of the kind of art he holds dearly.
Olusegun Adejumo, during one of his lectures.

As a painter, Adejumo has established his skills through many solo and group exhibitions spanning a period of 25 years post-training. He has leaned more towards portraiture themes, consistently using his palette to research women and their elegance of fashion as well as exploring the anatomy of the softer gender's sensuousness.

For his sculptural indulgence, little was known in two and a half decades until now as he prepares for a solo art exhibition holding in a few weeks. But the same cannot be said of his art resource part, which he says happens quite a lot. And having regularly engaged in the intellectuality of creating art, he appears grounded in the battle of superior argument, particularly on issues relating to art and its contempporaneity or otherwise of it.

On the academics or intellectuality of art appreciation, as well as appropriating art, Adejumo discloses that "unknown to many, I have spent more time lecturing, informally, on art as a quiet lecturer." Some of his activities in that context include History of Nigerian Art, given this year at Red Door Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos courtesy of The Nigeria Stock Exchange; in 2013 Breakfast With The Creatives, also at Red Door Gallery; Sharing My Work Experience in 2012 at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile- Ife, Osun State; in 2011 at OAU Ife, Surviving As a Visual Artist in the 21st Century Nigeria; in 2008 Nigerians at Work at Africa Art Resource Centre (AARC), Lagos; and in 2007, Young Artist and His Market Place- Swimming Against the Tide at Art Zero, Lagos.

As if reading the mind of his guest during a chat, he asks: "who am I?" The rhetorical question comes after his response on the gradual, but long-awaited changing face of Lagos art scene. From the conservative and perhaps "repetitive" themes, artists who derive strength from the modernist tradition appear to be imputing, faintly though, quite some change of contents. Adejumo is a consistent and stable portraitist of the modernism rendition. Are the modernists succumbing to the pressure from advocates of contemporary contents? "Not necessarily," he cautions. Artists, he argues, are not expected to be static. "We have to move from one state to another, and still maintain your identity." He notes that contemporary art, as being proclaimed these days "is not fine art."

Indeed, contemporary practice has, over the recent decades, been expanding the scope of visual arts beyond the confinement of fine art, making the relativity of creative or conceptual contents more subjective. But Adejumo, a member, Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria (GFA) insists that fine art embodies or defines visual arts more explicit. "You can find contemporary art inside fine art, but not the other way round." Art appreciation, he stresses, should be truly based on how the content appeals to the viewer, noting that most "contemporary art thrives on volumes of literature to get people's attention."

But can literary support be divorced from contextualising and appropriating art, particularly in the 21st century? "A work of art does not need literature to be appreciated." In fact, Adejumo submits that conceptual content such as "installation and performance should have fallen under something else, not art."       

Although he denies being under any influence of the contemporary tide, quite some changes are, of recent, emerging on his canvas - away from the traditional portraiture styles. For examples two of his works heading for auctions in Lagos and London exude some contents completely different from the Adejumo one knows too well. "It's part of the change every artist desires," he insists. And still on the change, his next solo art exhibition titled Emotion, he discloses, takes a step further into the making of portraitures. It's about sharing the feeling or chemistry that exists between a model and the artist; and the evolvement of a girl into womanhood. The themes of the show are spread across paintings, drawings and sculptures.
 
WOMEN as subjects on Adejumo’s canvas have been given quite a large space over the decades. In his last solo Ideal and Ideas, held at Nettatal Luxury, Port Harcourt, Rivers State three years ago, Adejumo delved into Niger Delta narrative. He also touched on ladies' subconscious arrogance of beauty, stressing his artistic passion for beautiful women of the south-south region. This much he expresses in works such as ‘Figure Narration’ — a semi nude painting; a social gathering depiction, Sitting Pretty and Gele, as well as a charcoal work, Wrap. He adds poetry, not "literature" to stress his admiration of the beauties from the region. “Beauty is an attitude for these women; you don’t need to tell a southern woman she is beautiful because she knows it already.”


However, that exhibition also had traces of contents sharply away from his usual style of brush romance with ladies portraiture. For example, the piece, Take Six, melts the dreaded image of the Niger Delta militancy into hip-hop culture in a six-figure rendition of young males.

The exhibition, basically, was in sympathy with the struggle of the Niger Delta people. Undoubtedly, a Lagos boy, but Adejumo had part of his youth in Port Harcourt. So, among the works that express the sympathy are two sides of abstraction such as Pages Static and Pages Rotation, he ages the canvas, as an attempt to express the pathetic side of the region.  While insisting that the people of the region are peace loving, Adejumo argues, “it’s not the image of the Niger Delta that’s battered, but that of the entire country.”

And that he had chosen Port Harcourt for the show stressed his attachment to the region. “I lived in Port Harcourt throughout my secondary school days. I know the people and have friends among them.”

Over the decades, quite a number of factors, he notes, had fractured the unity of the country. “As a student at Unity School, we didn’t know the tribes of your classmates because we were not conscious of such diversion.”

In sympathy with the struggle of the people, the artist defends one of the heroes. “Saro Wiwa was not about militancy, but environmental activism.”

Adejumo the sculptor is an escapist. Moulding or carving, he discloses, are refuges for him to ease out tension or stress. “After a stressful moment, I find comfort using my fingers to mould.” So over the years, he has done qite some sculptural pieces that he thinks are worth showcasing. Some of them goes into the Emotion show.

A rebellious teenager, Adejumo abandoned studying Architecture at University of Lagos for Fine Art at Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech), Lagos. Two years after, he emerged the Best Over All Student in Painting, 1984. Again, he attempted Architecture, but “turned back on my way to University of Jos, and returned to Lagos for my HND.”
  History would record Adejumo as one of the young Nigerian artists who were bold enough to see the prospect in full-time studio practice. He joined the unfurling new phase of Nigerian art in the early 1990s,

Adejumo was born on September 30, 1965 in Lagos. He served as Assistant Lecturer, Painting at the Lagos State Polytechnic and later worked as a visualizer and illustrator at Advertising Techniques Limited from 1991 to 1992. He co-ordinated The Young Masters Art Trust.

Some of his past shows include Make a wish- fundraising exhibition in support of breast and cervical cancer, Bloom Project, City Hall, Lagos; 2007 Expressions, Sandiland Arcade, VI Lagos; 2004 Lately, Truview Gallery, Lagos; 1998 On Request, American Embassy guest house, Lagos 1997 Recent Paintings, Chevron Estate, Lagos 1994 Recent Paintings in watercolour, Fenchurch Gallery, Lagos; and 1992 Diverse Siblings, Centre Culturel Francaise, Alliance Francais, Lagos.

Four years after, LBHF artists reconvene for Our United Heritage


By Tajudeen Sowole
 Emerging from the rubbles of the short-lived Caterina De’ Medici-inspired Lagos Black Heritage Festival Painting Competition, a group now known as 3rd Black Heritage Artists attempts to keep the spirit of the gathering alive. Formally reconnecting after about four years, the artists will, from October 4, 2014 show about 60 works under the title Our United Heritage, at Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos.

Recall that the artists participated at the third Lagos Black Heritage Festival’s art competition section in 2010. The competition LBHF Painting Competition themed Lagos, the City of A Thousand Masks, which was a franchise from Florence, Italy’s yearly event, Caterina De’ Medici Painting Awards, debuted in Nigeria, courtesy of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. Won by Abbas Kelani, who got $20,000 prize money, the competition ran into a hitch a year after, leading to unresolved conflict of interests between the organisers and Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Lagos State chapter.

Wheels by Dr. Kunle Adeyemi

One of the artists, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi, who is among the promoters of the third Black Heritage Artists, stated during a preview that the regrouping of the artists was premised on the rarity of the 2010 gathering. “I do not think the Nigerian art scene has witnessed such a large number of well established professional artists in one art competition,” he stated. And to keep the memory of the “historic competition alive, we have formed the 3rd Black Heritage Artists”. The group, Adeyemi disclosed, “has been duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),” apparently to avoid any plagiarism or link with the ill-fated Italy franchised art competition. However, the LBHF Painting Competition currently holds as age group for school children.

Exhibiting artists of ‘Our United Heritage’ include Adeoye Silas, Aimufa Osagie, Akintubode Gbenga, Akinwolore, Bimbo Adenugba, Ekweme Harriet, Folami, Idowu Abiola, Ighpdalo George, Ike Francis, John Onobrakpeya, Abbas, Kunle Adeyemi, Munza, Omidiran Gbolade, Oni Stephen, Sola Olamuyiwa and Uchenna Umeh.

Some of the works for the show presented during the preview cut across medium of painting and mixed media. Adeoye’s rendition of ancient form figures in The Repent and Egun 2 as well as Osagie’s modernist’s stylized portraiture in Family Ties and Passion stress the diversity of the gathering. Also, in the abstraction Spacerithim by Francis and Adeyemi’s Drummer and Wheels, come contents that seem to justify the gathering.

For Abbas, who won the grand prize at the rested competition, quite a lot has changed in his art between 2010 and now. This much he continues in works such as Family Album Series, Ale and Irole as well as The Printer. Of recent, Abbas has changed the tone of his canvas, delving into portraiture of highly archival themes and rendering them in concept of photographs, acrylic and prints on canvas. Adding to the richness of the gathering are Gbolade’s sea of mask themes depicted in Market Transformation and Music Matters.

Rasheed Amodu who writes a piece for the cataloque of the show notes that the gathering offers the public to assess the artists, individually. He adds that it “will help the artist to make positive professional progress.” And not afinality for those who were less prepared for the exhibition. “Artists with works that are not so great for now can produce great works and masterpieces in the near future. It is a truism that all artistic genius were students or apprentice at some point in their career. Thus, let the show go on, but there must be other shows from the group after this first step.”

The maiden edition of Caterina de’ Medici International Painting Competition took place in the city of Florence in year 2002.The coordinator of LBHF Painting Competition, Foluke Michael led three Nigeria artists to the awards. Ten winners were chosen, and at the end of the six-day event, one of the Nigerian representatives, Olubunmi Ogundare was among the top 10.

Also, a Nigerian artist, Sam Ebohon won the Grand Prize of the Caterina de’ Medici International Painting Competition a year after.

Enter Indigo’s Photo Book.. Innovation in event documentation


By Tajudeen Sowole
 Documenting social and corporate events in visual content takes a fresh digital photographic leap in a new medium known as Photo Book. Introduced into the photography aspect of Nigeria's growing event management business by an Indian, Anthony Isaac, Photo Book takes creative documenting of events several generations into the future beyond where the traditional photo album stops.

The new Photo Book innovation by Indigo Digital Press


The difference between Isaac-led Indigo Digital Press concept and photo album is the creative book form and texture of the former's hard papers.

The Photo Book derives its format from the characteristics of page layouts and implanting texts into the photographs. But more explicit, the difference from photo album is the silver halide material and a technique of production that eliminates photo-shop. And quite interesting the press machine, according to Isaac, has been designed to fasten the process of making the Photo Book.
“The most critically acclaimed photo-books would celebrate the creativity of an individual photographer. It is handmade and exclusive work, carried out using high-quality photographic digital equipments for printing & binding”, Isaac, a trained photographer stated.

From having "started digital photo printing in Nigeria 12 years ago and silver halide Photo Book production 10 years ago," Isaac stated that Indigo pioneered synthetic album in the country six years ago. He recalled, “then, there was no demand”. But three years later, the company set out to bring the HP machine to Nigeria, “And last February, we got the machine.”

Having come this far, remaining in business as well as allowing professional photographers make a living out of the Photo Book is the priority of Indigo, Isaac said. “For the end users, we want to get to as many as possible through the photographers and create more job opportunities”. The three focal points of Indigo, he disclosed are “the photo labs, press and events management.”

Managing Director, Indigo Digital Press, Mr. Sethu, argued that the new process“is truly revolutionary." Isaac described Photo Book as the next evolution in photo album. The process, he added, "will open the doors to a host of new businesses for our company." 
 Other innovations of Indigo include Indigo Special Silver Finish Album, Metalic Pearl Album, Classic Album, Synthetic Album Matt Finish and Synthetic Album Glossy Finish.

“Photographers and those in the photography industry who are looking for innovation and something new and effective to showcase to their potential customers and clients have identified with the innovative products being turned out by the company.”

Isaac stressed that Indigo is one of its kind and quality in this part of the world with a A-3 size format and a unique product that would drive the adoption of digital press into the mainstream of printing by fitting seamlessly into the existing offset environments, an area which has witnessed a huge shift in the photographic segment. He noted that the “traditional silver halide prints are rapidly being replaced by HP Indigo Press due to the excellent quality output of the machine.”

He further explained how the HP Indigo has proven to be the right technology for photography reproduction business in Lagos and the country as a whole. For the Indigo Photo Book, there are two types of texture: the Glossy and Matt. Quite interesting, as soft as it looks, is cannot be torn to pieces.

He described Synthetic Album as the next evolution in photo album, adding, “The page layout makes a significant contribution to the overall content. The most critically acclaimed photo-books would celebrate the creativity of an individual photographer. It is handmade and exclusive work, carried out using high-quality photographic digital equipment for printing and binding”.

Conceptuality according to Kehinde Wiley


By Tajudeen Sowole

Critics of repetitive themes and Nigerian artists whose confidence are being eroded by misappropriation of contemporary art have a lesson to learn from the rising profile of Nigerian-American artist, Kehinde Wiley.

Wiley, based in New York is a portraitist who has made name, in a short period, consistently pushing a medium of visual arts that most Nigerian artists would not want to publicly identify with. Wiley conceptualises portraits using subjects of his immediate environment as icons and adding fresh flavour to portrait painting as if the art world never had great portraitists in the past. His work takes the battle for conceptuality into the realm of contemporary context and appropriation.


Kehinde Wiley and his portraiture works


At 20, in 1997, Wiley, born in the U.S. visited Nigeria for the first time and got inspired by the Ankara fabric (Dutch wax) widely used in Lagos. Back in the U.S., he started developing striking technique of immersing his subjects into fabric designs that are similar to what he saw in Lagos.

And with a documentary Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace shown on PBS recently – viewed via the Internet – the artist’s creativity celebrates the value of merging natural instincts with self-expression. Wiley’s portraits of ordinary people on the streets and African-American male celebrities, over the years, have been taken to shows across the world with fantastic responses.

Basically, Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace discloses the artist’s newest works, and perhaps another period in his career. It has been shown at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York in 2012.

Wiley states: “The phrase ‘an economy of grace’ speaks directly to the ways in which we manufacture and value grace and honour the people that we choose to bestow that honour upon, and the ways in which grace is at once an ideal that we strive for and something that is considered to be a natural human right. I am painting women in order to come to terms with the depictions of gender within the context of art history. One has to broaden the conversation...This series of works attempts to reconcile the presence of black female stereotypes that surround their presence and/or absence in art history, and the notions of beauty, spectacle, and the ‘grand’ in painting.”

One of the portrait paintings by Wiley

The documentary film by Remy Martin®, and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jeff Dupre conforms the uniqueness as well as rising profile of Wiley. The artist may just bring back the past glory of celebrating portraits.

Sean Kelly Gallery notes that Wiley’s works have been shown at exhibitions “worldwide and are in the permanent collections of several museums.” Some of the his works are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Studio Museum, Harlem, New York; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; High Museum, Atlanta; Columbus Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum; Milwaukee Art Museum; and Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Shortly before the start of the last World Cup in Brazil, Wiley was among over 30 artists whose works opened as Fútbol: The Beautiful Game at Lacma, Los Angeles as part of the preparation for Brazil 2014 World Cup.

The exhibition, according to the organisers, examines football and its significance in societies around the world, noting that “as a subject, football touches on issues of nationalism and identity, globalism and mass spectacle, as well as the common human experience shared by spectators from many cultures.”  The show, which lasted till July, featured artists, both living and departed, Andy - Warhol inclusive - from around the world who work in video, photography, painting and sculpture.

After the display at the global exhibition in preparation for the Brasil 2014 World Cup, Wiley has also been listed among the honourees of the Brooklyn Museum, U.S as part of the museum’s yearly fundraising gala, which celebrates the community’s creativity.

Late last year, Wiley had his first U.K solo exhibition titled: The World Stage, at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. The show was the seventh in the artist’s series of focusing Black communities in Israel, Sri Lanka, Senegal, Nigeria, China and Brazil.
 Some of his solo shows are: Economy of Grace, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY 2011; The World Stage: Israel, Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA; and Selected Works, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA 2010.

After a Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. 

A Journey of painting, foil defines Ufuoma's art


By Tajudeen Sowole
A combination of Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya's print technique and his son, Ufuoma’s evolving styles dominate the body of work at the just held solo art exhibition.

On a quiet afternoon, the paintings, relief foil prints and mixed media pieces of the young Onobrakpeya, under the title My Journey So Far are deserted inside the conference hall at Ford Foundation, Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos.  The exhibition had opened to the public, formally, about a week earlier, perhaps with traffic of guests who viewed the works.

Tribute to Fela (deep etching print) by Ufuoma Onobrakpeya

But this afternoon, My Journey So Far had only one guest who was being received by a security officer inside the room where the works were being displayed. Not exactly a regular art exhibition atmosphere, but the beam of daylight, through the glass doors, onto the works mounted on room dividers diffuses the sternness of the space.

A series titled Ekenwa Landscape, A Tribute to Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Fish Market in Dakar are some of the pieces engaging one's attention. "The body of work represents my environment and culture," Ufuoma tells his guest as he comes in, breaking the serenity of the room.  The contents of the show summarise the artist's career of over a decade of post-training practice. "It's about my paintings and prints spanning 12 years since graduation from University of Benin, Edo State in 1995."

There is something about the 12 number and Ufuoma exhibitions: when he had his debut solo show titled. My Environment, My Culture at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, in 2011, the works, according to him were "compiled over a period of 12 years."  And as the first and second of the 12 years roll into each other, the tone of the works suggests that the artist has quite a pool of experimental deliveries. While the debut solo had deep etching and lino prints competing for space, his Journey So Far has paintings and relief foil prints seeking the artist’s preference. 
Ufuoma’s Journey offers a clue about which side of the medium - painting or print - his practice has allegiance. For painting, his strokes, as fragile as they appear, may still be accepted as style if the consistence is sustained. His heart, perhaps passion too, goes for painting, but something else indicates that the artist is unconvinced. "I see myself more as a printmaker than a painter."

The Ekenwa Series, he recalls, were done in his university days while the tribute to Fela, a foil print is dated 1996.
Other works, he says, are based on “my daily travels within the city and events.”  And in far away Senegal, comes Fish Market in Dakar. He recalls how the environment inspired the work. “Every morning at a beach in Dakar, there were so many activities relating to fish such that I could not resist expressing part of it in my art.” In fact, there are series of the Dakar fishing scenes of which “one was sold at the last Bonhams auction.”

After obtaining a degree in Fine Art specializing in Painting, Ufuoma has also bagged a Masters of Arts degree specializing in Printmaking from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London, U.K in 2002.

He is currently a lecturer at the Department of Fine Art, School of Art, Design and Printing in Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos.

His solo and group exhibitions include My Genesis (Lekki Restaurant Gallery, Chevron Nigeria,Limited in 1997); New Trends in Nigerian Art, organized by Texaco Overseas (Nigeria) Petroleum Unlimited in 1998. Promoter of Nigerian Art: Bruce Onobrakpeya arranged by Goethe Institute Lagos (1999).

Saturday 20 September 2014

Painter, Ajayi gets Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) Fellow honour

Olu Ajayi (left), receiving Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) honour of Fellow from Kolade Oshinowo during the ceremonial event recently, in Lagos.




New Order...How 'Colourists' project fresh canvas


By Tajudeen Sowole
As modern and contemporary arts compete for space on the vibrant Lagos art landscape, a possible return of similar factors that energised art appreciation in the 1980s through early 1990s may just be returning. 

From the New Order exhibition, Toni Okijeni’s Festival.
Art connoisseurs and other enthusiasts could start experiencing this much when the group exhibition titled New Order opens tomorrow, ending September 30, 2014 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.  Olu Ajayi, Sam Ovraiti, Toni Okujeni and Pita Ohiwerei are the artists of New Order. They hoped to use the exhibition in spurring a new phase for Nigerian art. Three of the artists, Ajayi, Ovraiti and Okujeni are among those that were christened "Colourists" in the 1980s for adding a new texture of colour to Lagos art. Ohiwerei and other artists of like minds later joined the trend.

Prior to the emergence of these artists and others who were trained at Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, the canvas of Lagos art scene, and perhaps by extension, the rest of Nigeria was not – in the argument of a section of observers and critics - as diverse.  The Colourists, so suggest critics, brought more "vibrant colour" onto the canvas. In fact, the Auchi art school seemed to have stressed its identity of producing artists of 'vibrant' application of collours via the influence that Ajayi, Ovraiti, Edwin Debebs, Ikoro Emmanuel, Ekpeni Emmanauel, Okujeni, Osazuwa Osagie, Ben Osaghae,  Ohiwerei, Lessor Jonathan, Alex Nwokolo and others had welded over the Nigerian art scene.

However, the 1980s/90s art is different from the 21st century's visual arts space being redefined by the energy of contemporary art. Within the scope of the dynamics that has thrown up new and non-traditional medium, appropriating and conceptualising of art, the artists of the New Order hope to strengthen their modernists’ identity.

Despite an unprecedented increase in appreciation of Nigerian art in the last six to seven years, the walls of galleries and contents of some sections of the art scenes appear static; laced with repetitive themes and copying as well as subconscious transfer of old styles and techniques from masters to young artists with diminishing creativity. But the 'Colourists' who take a chunk of credit and praises - perhaps knocks too - for the state of a largely conservative art scene in Nigeria are set to inject what they believe would pass as new face. More importantly, its quite cheering that at least, the need to open up the regimented art house and modulate the tone of Nigerian art is coming from a section of those who dominate the third/fourth generation the country's modernists.
  "After 30 years, we are coming together to re-present the state of our art," Ovraiti told select guests during a preview of New Order. He went memory lane to the 19th century period of impressionism, comparing the challenges of the pioneers to the emergence of Nigeria's Colourists. Three decades after, they are revisiting the art scene  "to reinstate freedom, purity and quality in the result that shows in our art."

Ajayi was more precise: "New Order is about separating art from picture making." And having received the knocks of critics for being repetitive in their themes, the Colorrists, other artists they have inspired over the past two decades and their followers need to surrender to the reality of change, so suggested the argument of Ajayi. "It's also about self-expression and getting out of the regimented art scene of doing the same thing all over." Being the promoters of impasto and creative application of colour in the Nigerian art scene, "we now want to move beyond this," Okujeni added.

The dynamics of Nigerian art scene in the last two decades or more has excavated quite a number of groups such as professional bodies as well as movements. And the New Order artists appear like another movement in the making. “It’s a consciousness, not a movement,” Ajayi clarified.

Reviewing the past two decades of the Nigerian art, Ovraiti noted that “New truths have been revealed and more colourists have also emerged.” However, it does appear that the line between the modern and contemporary Nigerian art is blurring. For example, all of a sudden the word 'conceptual' which the visual arts world has arrogated to a particular kind of art outside the Renaissance and modernists or Fine Arts terrains is suddenly appearing across the board. Refusing to be shut out of the confined contemporary definition, the New Order artists disclosed that the works for the show are "conceptual." This appears like a total confrontation against the tide of contemporaneity, isn't it? "Art does not have to be performance, installation or some masquerades now known as art to be conceptual." Ovraiti argued. Indeed, in common and ordinary usage, it could be argued that most creative works across the Arts - visual arts, music, film, theatre- are conceptual, anyway. But it takes what looks like the threat of contemporary art or "fad" for other artists of regular and traditional expression in Fine Arts to challenge the confinement of conceptualism to contemporary medium such as installation and performance art.

In the work of Ohiwerei, the change, from repetitive to wider themes and textures is glaring. His works such as Dance Spirit, Chibok Unending Story and Market though appear familiar, the texture and contents are not exactly his usual.

 For Ovraiti and Ajayi, traditions and identity are hard to be swept away so soon, so suggest their works that have traces of fresh breath within the context of conceptuality. In fact, Ovraiti warned that the past cannot be frozen so soon as much as a new dawn is crucial. “This exhibition could witness some recurrent themes. The driving force for looking back if we did is to revisit a previous result from our current level of enlightenment and awareness. After all, artists draw from their inside, foresight and insight. Looking at hindsight sometimes enables a new result.”

And if medium of expression and usage of materials are the key characteristics of contemporary or conceptual art, Okujeni imbibes such in Festival, a mixed media basically rendered in buttons to achieve what looks like pointillism.

 Ovraiti has applied his art to outside the art exhibition circle, mostly in the workshops and mentorship sections of art development. In fact, he is currently the director at Nigeria’s most consistent yearly art gathering, the Harmattan Workshop.
  Ajayi: has more than 28 years professional experience, and was recently given a Fellow, Society of Nigerian Artist. He is a founding member and Trustee of the Guild of Professional Fine Artist. His bio states in parts: Ajayi’s metaphoric vocabulary is also deeply rooted in the body, his ultimate vehicle in expressing life’s dualities. His sensuous colors, sweeping strokes and narrative content place the human figure on a grand scare, while the dramatic cropping of figures and forms emphasizes the immediacy of the paint. Ajayi has also achieved recognition for his remarkable watercolors in grey scare executed in a broad gestural technique.

In 1993, Ajayi was listed in Who is Who in Art in Nigeria published by the Smithsonian Institute and Libraries. In 2004 he won the best Alumnus Award of Auchi Polytechnic
  Okujeni, a former art illustrator at the defunct Guardian Express magazine has been a full time studio artist in the past 25 years. Having taken his art across Africa, he is currently seen as the face of Nigerian art in Senegal.
 Okujeni’s past exhibitions included His past exhibitions included Nigerian contemporary cartoons United State Information Center, Lagos 1986; Treasure House Salon-  1989; Treasure house exhibition- 1989; Exhibition of art, Shell Club Warri-  1991; two-men show Leventis Foundation Centre- 1992;  Colour masters, Didi museum, Lagos- 1993; The way we are- NiconNoga Abuja-  1994;  Impastoes something special gallery Lagos -  1995; Valley of decision- National Museum-  1996; Ecole de Dakar exhibition-  GalerieYassine 1998; One man show-  GalerieYassine 199;  Assilah Forum Exhibition- Morocco- 1998; Exhibition of painting- Polo Club Lagos 1999; and Three man show National Musuem, Onikan, Lagos 2012.
  Based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., Ohiwerei has experimented in a quite a number of techniques and came up with series such as scratchee. His bio states that he has had solo exhibitions across Europe, Africa and U.S “where he has won numerous awards.

Sunday 14 September 2014

#BringBackJonathan2015: The Wages Of Impunity, by Soyinka


The dancing obscenity of Shekau and his gang of psychopaths and child abductors, taunting the world, mocking the BRING BACK OUR GIRLS campaign on internet, finally met its match in Nigeria to inaugurate the week of September 11 – most appropriately. Shekau’s dance macabre was surpassed by the unfurling of a political campaign banner that defiled an entry point into Nigeria’s capital of Abuja. That banner read:  BRING BACK JONATHAN 2015. 


Prof Wole Soyinka
President Jonathan has since disowned all knowledge or complicity in the outrage but, the damage has been done, the rot in a nation’s collective soul bared to the world. The very possibility of such a desecration took the Nigerian nation several notches down in human regard. It confirmed the very worst of what external observers have concluded and despaired of  - a culture of civic callousness, a coarsening of sensibilities and, a general human disregard. It affirmed the acceptance, even domination of lurid practices where children are often victims of unconscionable abuses including ritual sacrifices, sexual enslavement, and worse.  Spurred by electoral desperation, a bunch of self-seeking morons and sycophants chose to plumb the abyss of self-degradation and drag the nation down to their level.  It took us to a hitherto unprecedented low in ethical degeneration.  The bets were placed on whose turn would it be to take the next potshots at innocent youths in captivity whose society and governance have failed them and blighted their existence? Would the Chibok girls now provide standup comic material for the latest staple of Nigerian escapist diet?  Would we now move to a new export commodity in the entertainment industry named perhaps “Taunt the Victims”?

As if to confirm all the such surmises, an ex-governor, Sheriff, notorious throughout the nation – including within security circles as affirmed in their formal dossiers - as prime suspect in the sponsorship league of the scourge named Boko Haram,  was presented to the world as a presidential traveling companion. And the speculation became: was the culture of impunity finally receiving endorsement as a governance yardstick?  Again, Goodluck Jonathan swung into a plausible explanation: it was Mr. Sheriff who, as friend of the host President Idris Deby, had traveled ahead to Chad to receive Jonathan as part of President Deby’s welcome entourage.  What, however does this say of any president? How came it that a suspected affiliate of a deadly criminal gang, publicly under such ominous cloud, had the confidence to smuggle himself into the welcoming committee of another nation, and even appear in audience, to all appearance a co-host with the president of that nation? Where does the confidence arise in him that Jonathan would not snub him openly or, after the initial shock, pull his counterpart, his official host aside and say to him, “Listen, it’s him, or me.”? So impunity now transcends boundaries, no matter how heinous the alleged offence?
The Nigerian president however appeared totally at ease. What the nation witnessed in the photo-op was an affirmation of a governance principle, the revelation of a decided frame of mind – with precedents galore. Goodluck Jonathan has brought back into limelight more political reprobates - thus attested in criminal courts of law and/or police investigations - than any other Head of State since the nation’s independence. It has become a reflex. Those who stuck up the obscene banner in Abuja had accurately read Jonathan right as a Bring-back president. They have deduced perhaps that he sees “bringing back” as a virtue, even an ideology, as the corner stone of governance, irrespective of what is being brought back. No one quarrels about bringing back whatever the nation once had and now sorely needs – for instance, electricity and other elusive items like security, the rule of law etc. etc. The list is interminable. The nature of what is being brought back is thus what raises the disquieting questions. It is time to ask the question: if Ebola were to be eradicated tomorrow, would this government attempt to bring it back? 


The controversial #BringBackJonathan2015 bill board
Well, while awaiting the Chibok girls, and in that very connection, there is at least an individual whom the nation needs to bring back, and urgently. His name is Stephen Davis, the erstwhile negotiator in the oft aborted efforts to actually bring back the girls.  Nigeria needs him back – no, not back to the physical nation space itself, but to a Nigerian induced forum, convoked anywhere that will guarantee his safety and can bring others to join him. I know Stephen Davis, I worked in the background with him during efforts to resolve the insurrection in the Delta region under President Shehu Yar’Adua. I have not been involved in his recent labours for a number of reasons. The most basic is that my threshold for confronting evil across a table is not as high as his -  thanks, perhaps, to his priestly calling. From the very outset, in several lectures and other public statements, I have advocated one response and one response only to the earliest, still putative depredations of Boko Haram and have decried any proceeding that smacked of appeasement. There was a time to act – several times when firm, decisive action, was indicated. There are certain steps which, when taken, place an aggressor beyond the pale of humanity, when we must learn to accept that not all who walk on two legs belong to the community of humans – I view Boko Haram in that light. It is no comfort to watch events demonstrate again and again that one is proved to be right.
Thus, it would be inaccurate to say that I have been detached from the Boko Haram affliction – very much the contrary. As I revealed in earlier statements, I have interacted with the late National Security Adviser, General Azazi, on occasion – among others.  I am therefore compelled to warn that anything that Stephen Davis claims to have uncovered cannot be dismissed out of hand.  It cannot be wished away by foul-mouthed abuse and cheap attempts to impugn his integrity – that is an absolute waste of time and effort. Of the complicity of ex-Governor Sheriff in the parturition of Boko Haram, I have no doubt whatsoever, and I believe that the evidence is overwhelming. Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing – and that of a number of civic organizations - if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution. The evidence in possession of Security Agencies - plus a number of diplomats in Nigeria - is overwhelming, and all that is left is to let the man face criminal persecution. It is certain he will also take many others down with him. 

Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (left), President Jonathan and President Deby 
The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity, and deserves that very dimension in its resolution. If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end. Truth – in all available detail - is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent, but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek. From very early beginnings, we warned against the mouthing of empty pride to stem a tide that was assuredly moving to inundate the nation but were dismissed as alarmists. We warned that the nation had moved into a state of war, and that its people must be mobilized accordingly – the warnings were disregarded, even as slaughter surmounted slaughter, entire communities wiped out, and the battle began to strike into the very heart of governance, but all we obtained in return was moaning, whining and hand-wringing up and down the rungs of leadership and governance. But enough of recriminations - at least for now. Later, there must be full accounting.
Finally, Stephen Davis also mentions a Boko Haram financier within the Nigerian Central Bank. Independently we are able to give backing to that claim, even to the extent of naming the individual. In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank. That name, we confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalized, an attitude that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanizing the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name. 
In the meantime however, as we twiddle our thumbs, wondering when and how this nightmare will end, and time rapidly runs out, I have only one admonition for the man to whom so much has been given, but who is now caught in the depressing spiral of diminishing returns: “Bring Back Our Honour.”