BEHIND THE BALLOT BOX

BEHIND THE BALLOT BOX

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.

CHOREOGRAPHY OF CLAY AND TWIGS

CHOREOGRAPHY OF CLAY AND TWIGS

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

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.

URCHINS

URCHINS

MASSAGES FROM WITHIN

M

STRIPPED STORIES

A BETTER YEAR

IT'S LIKE A RALLY

TRANSIENCE UNEARTHED, SIDE VIEW

TRANSIENCE UNEARTHED, BACK VIEW

TRANSIENCE UNEARTHED

TRANSIENCE UNEARTHED

This artwork, which consists of the torso of a kneeling nude woman with planted flowers growing out from her neck, stands at about 214cm x 110cm x 160cm, and is sculpted with the mixture of sand and clay. From the robust nature of her vigorously molded torso and thighs one can correctly assume that this figure belongs to either a fat woman or a woman in the early stages of pregnancy when weight gain becomes inevitable. The sprouting flower growing from her neck however suggests the latter. The figure has a meditative and playful poise and seems to inhibit a kind of surreal eloquence that evokes the impression that it is subtly and silently interacting with the environment in which it is placed. The natural and deliberately unfinished state of the work further reechoes this fact.
The style of the artwork is reminiscent of the ancient Greek style of sculpting their god of beauty Venus. Nevertheless it is fertility and not beauty that is emphasized here. The figure along the lines of its well thought out and stubbornly executed configuration, the masterful combination of earth and plant, mirrors the union, the bond that exists between our inner selves and our heartbeat, the personality and the attitude that is exhibited as a result of that personality. Furthermore, the host of living plants also informs us of the possibility of new life and the transient passage of time.

sterms

Eku-ite-garri

the little humps of semi-cylindrical clay forms, littered all over every available space in the exhibition ground are replicas of the homemade apparatus used by peasant women to shield and control the fumes drifting off the firewood burning under the pan while frying garri.
The making of the clay humps, which is known in the igbo language as eku-ite garri, is considered a masculine task usually carried out by the boy(s) in the household, while the frying of the garri itself is done mainly by the mothers of the house due to the certain degree of expertise, patience and experience required its execution. The entire process of local garri production identifies one of the rare occasions in rural Nigerian setting where the bond between mothers and their sons are lauded and encouraged by the society, since it is the usual norm that mothers stay with their daughters in the kitchen while fathers go to the farm, fish or hunt with their sons. With the radical influx of technological development in the society and its resultant cultural interchange, the chore of processing garri is now becoming obsolete and thus leading to the slow eradication of one of the few stimuli that encourages and deepens that mother-son relationship. Juvenile delinquency in the society is now on the up rise, what with the tirade of negative influences from the vulgar associations with street gangs and most private media.