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Monday, August 18, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
HIKE OF INDULGENCE
Hike of indulgences, 2008, clay and sweet and biscuit wrappers, 1600cm x 2800cm x 8cm (in variable dimensions) In this litter of assemblages in variable dimensions, sweet wrappers are depressed into lumps of clay, in a way that allows part of their individual crumpled ends to stick out of them. Every lump has a unique type of pressure that has been exerted in its squeeze, as depicted in the different variations in the depth of the depressions of the fingerprints involved in each grip.
The sweet wrappers used in this work actually represent the fleeting pleasures of life and the clay grips on them demonstrate emphatically the varied degrees of importance every individual, irrespective of their race, colour, vocation, culture etc places on them. It is an accepted noteworthy observation that man’s wants are boundless but it is that endless pursuit of these indulgences that most times illustrate our basic definitions of living.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Aju,
AJU, 2008, CLAY and CLOTH, 20cm x 184cm x 41cm.
The work Aju (head pad) is made up of several pieces of clothes soaked into clay slip and folded in a pattern that bears the semblance of a head pad, which people normally use in carrying heavy loads on their head. The work is assembled in a horizontal line on a pedestal. The assemblage measures at about 20cm x 184cm x 41cm in variable dimensions.
There is an inextricable fusion of form and texture, a merging of postmodernism and classical realism entailed in this work in that the draperies which characterize most of the head pads deploy a shrewd sense of conceptual flow and harmony in its sculptural composition that is reminiscent of the idealism of the renaissance period. Literarily, the concept Aju suggests thickness or piles of cloth, and the artist’s idea of soaking the cloth in clay slip is to infuse the contextual feel of heaviness and thickness in the concept in order to establish balance, strength and stability in the overall theme of the installation.
The work Aju (head pad) is made up of several pieces of clothes soaked into clay slip and folded in a pattern that bears the semblance of a head pad, which people normally use in carrying heavy loads on their head. The work is assembled in a horizontal line on a pedestal. The assemblage measures at about 20cm x 184cm x 41cm in variable dimensions.
There is an inextricable fusion of form and texture, a merging of postmodernism and classical realism entailed in this work in that the draperies which characterize most of the head pads deploy a shrewd sense of conceptual flow and harmony in its sculptural composition that is reminiscent of the idealism of the renaissance period. Literarily, the concept Aju suggests thickness or piles of cloth, and the artist’s idea of soaking the cloth in clay slip is to infuse the contextual feel of heaviness and thickness in the concept in order to establish balance, strength and stability in the overall theme of the installation.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
BEHIND THE BALLOT BOX
The ballot box, a row of 8 life-sized sculptures, each of them constructed with armatures of human figures wrapped with wire-mesh upon which blobs of clay have been plastered all over with. The figures are all of different sizes, shapes and heights and are wielded to a long, narrow rectangular metal frame so that they are in a sort of queue-like formation.
What with the current state of our political unrest, the ballot box has become a symbol of oppression, intimidation, violence and deception rather than the freedom the citizen has to exercise his or her franchise. One can no longer visit the polling centers during elections these days without witnessing some of the strangest atrocities and raves of violence and political thuggery or hooliganism that occurs in the new Nigerian definition of election.
What with the current state of our political unrest, the ballot box has become a symbol of oppression, intimidation, violence and deception rather than the freedom the citizen has to exercise his or her franchise. One can no longer visit the polling centers during elections these days without witnessing some of the strangest atrocities and raves of violence and political thuggery or hooliganism that occurs in the new Nigerian definition of election.
CHOREOGRAPHY OF CLAY AND TWIGS
This assemblage consists of diverse twigs all respectively swathed in clay, each tied together and collectively arranged in a manner that shrewdly suggests crude outlines of a number of human shapes, each one a subtle visual depiction of the theatrical sequences and nuances of choreography. A clay drapery and flowing figure defines and describes the background of the work, and it synchronizes with the activities of the clayed twigs, thus forming a composition consisting of the fusion of intrinsic sculptural metaphors that delineate happiness, joy and merriment with exuberant movements
URCHINS
In the artwork, Urban Urchins, twigs of various sizes, each individual twig smeared with clay and capped with clay balls, have been stuck into respective lumps of clay. The assemblage is reminiscent of sea urchins on an ocean floor. Figuratively, an ‘urchin’ means a ‘spoilt, mischievous child’, and this is what is indirectly emphasized on, the strength of the influence emanating from primary social groups, especially youth groups or more precisely the peer group syndrome, since twigs are actually parts of a tree and can be regarded as the “child” of the parent, since they can be cultured to grow into them.
The differences in the sizes of each twig in a bunch characterize the attitude of an individual identifying him or her in a group that accepts their respective personalities and lauds their respective ideals. The artist believes that most of the social anomalies haunting the society in these recent times could be traced down to the delicate period in a child’s growth between pre-teen to adolescence, and much of the negative influences they embrace in their urban settings. He also posits that this can have an impact on the developmental trend of a society at large whether politically, economically or otherwise.
The differences in the sizes of each twig in a bunch characterize the attitude of an individual identifying him or her in a group that accepts their respective personalities and lauds their respective ideals. The artist believes that most of the social anomalies haunting the society in these recent times could be traced down to the delicate period in a child’s growth between pre-teen to adolescence, and much of the negative influences they embrace in their urban settings. He also posits that this can have an impact on the developmental trend of a society at large whether politically, economically or otherwise.
