Imminent battle for the soul, body of Richard III

Despite lack of DNA confirmation of recently dug up remains of what is suspected to be that of Richard III, a new tomb for the fifteenth century monarch may divide the British Parliament members.  

  Two members from the Labour party did not agree on a common final resting place. However, members were said to have taken time away from lawmaking and queued to have a view of the archaeological findings.

  The remains were dug up last month at a Leicester parking lot. Archaeologists found the bones beneath the site of the Grey Friars church in Leicester, central England.

Karen Ladniuk, cleaning a path made from re-used medieval tiles during an excavation of the car park in Leicester. PHOTO:

AP Photo/ University of Leicester.

  Bones unearthed during the dig have been sent for DNA testing and the experts hope that they turn out to be those of the medieval king. Sources, however, said it could take months for DNA testing to determine if the body is the king's.

  History says Richard was buried at the spot after his death in 1485. Richard's body was brought to Leicester, 100 miles (160 kms) north of London, after the king was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

  Meanwhile, there was an indication that issue may arise over the final resting place of the king immortalised by William Shakespeare. According to the Associated Press a Labour lawmaker John Mann has been quoted saying priory of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, would be an ideal new tomb for Richard III, but his Labour colleague, Jon Ashworth of Leicester South disagreed. Ashworth argued: "I am sure Worksop has many fine qualities, but given it was the Grey Friars who took the body of Richard and buried him at what was then the Grey Friars' church, a site which is today just a stone's throw from Leicester Cathedral, and he has been in Leicester for 500 years, it would be most appropriate that he is finally laid to rest at Leicester Cathedral."

  AP says the team that excavated the bones has identified a direct descendant of Richard's elder sister — a 17th great-grand-nephew — and obtained a DNA swab for possible matching with any bones found at the site.

Not even Visa denial could stop Atiku

BY TAJUDEEN SOWOLE

 HAD one told performance artist, Jelili Atiku, who recently returned from Europe on tour of select countries that his planned-journey to Germany in continuation of his activism would meet a brick wall, he would have doubted it.

Lately, Atiku was denied visa, in Lagos, to travel for a joint-performance with a Berlin-based artist, Lan Hungh. But his admirers are not letting the matter lay low, as they put up a protest performance titled, Where is Jelili Atiku?, at Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, and Berlin, on Sunday, October 7.

Disclosing how art keeps his activism on, Atiku says, “the performance was based on the issue of my visa refusal. And as a collaborative effort, the shows were held simultaneously at 29 Ifoshi Road, Ejigbo, Lagos and Savvy Contemporary Space, Berlin.”

The proposed works for the trip, he says were How Not To Dance Tchaikovsky Symphony, a series from his early show In The Red Performance project.

He recalls, “it was initially performed last July in Tiwani Contemporary, London, U.K. It was done in collaboration with Grace Morgan Pardo.”

He explains the botched show as portraying the consequential effects of the realities – a psychological speculation of actions and reactions. He notes that with symbolic contents, the show makes a metaphorical statement of the creative impulses of mankind.

Perhaps what seems like a political perspective to the show makes it more sensitive. “How Not to Dance Tchaikovsky Symphony is based on the personal life of Adolf Hitler and his love for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s songs. It makes a metaphorical statement and draws attention to the impact of Hitler’s action during the World War II and the ironical impacts of his listening to Tchaikovsky’s symphony. 

Atiku during the protest performance in Ejigbo. 

“In world history, Tchaikovsky represents peace, love, harmony; Hitler is a symbol of war, destruction, hate, violence and death,” he says.

Atiku asserts that German embassy refusing him visa is political. He argues: “it was deliberate to stop me from enacting the two performances that I had proposed for the Berlin trip.”

For the curator, Márcio Carvalho, the visa refusal to Atiku was unacceptable, noting that after Atiku submitted the required documents with full support of the art project space Savvy Contemporary, Berlin and the travel grant from Prince Claus Funds for Culture and Development - Netherlands,’ the artist was denied.

On carrying on with the show, Atiku says, “ with or without the refusal, we have succeeded at bringing Hungh’s presence to Lagos and my presence felt at Berlin. We took the idea of co-authorship, which happened naturally within the conditions of the co-lab’s programme and dissolved it all together.”

Atiku suspects that one of the reasons he was denied visa was because his performance titled Alaagba. Still a work in progress, the performance, he explains was proposed as a cleansing - ritual of purification. It will borrow ideas and forms from the Egungun ritual of Yoruba religion.  The performance hopes to lay its foundation on the consequences of the Berlin conference from1884 to1885 it ended, which resulted to the scramble for Africa nations and the sharing, division and annexation of the continent by the colonialists.”

Few months ago, in about nine art events spanning a period of three months across Europe and America, Atiku shared his local experience on human dignity. He performed in Sweden and gave lecture at event, which involved participants from the host country as well as Norway, Nigeria and Uganda. He also performed at Tate Modern, London, U.K.

  

The tour was a follow-up to his ongoing In the Red series. 

  

Ankara Portraits… An American’s love for African fabric painting

By Tajudeen Sowole

The resilience of the ankara fabric, which perhaps makes it one of the most celebrated African textiles, has attracted the attention of Johannesburg, South Africa-based American artist, Gary Stephens.

Coincidentally though, Stephens’ showing of paintings titled Ankara Portraits, currently on at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos opened just as Dublin Ankara Festival in Ireland and Ankara Festival Los Angeles, U.S. closed their 2012 editions. These festivals, indeed, confirmed the increasing popularity of the ankara fabric both at home and in the Diaspora.

However, Stephens’ paintbrush and canvas did not come in contact with the fabric abroad. Although he may have been working with other African fabrics such as South Africa’s shwe shwe textile, his contact with ankara, he disclosed, came when he came to Lagos for the first time early this year. 

Gary Stephens’ The Turquoise.

Stephens’ technique, basically, is painting on fabric, using photograph reference of people captured by his camera. He explained the process as starting with stretching of a fabric on the canvas, sketching and paint outlines with acrylic, bringing lights and shade where necessary and creating contrasting colours in the background.

When Stephens came to Lagos last February, the works from the technique he showed at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos included a more dimensional optical effect images. The portraits, viewed via slide back then, were of fashions referenced from the streets of Johannesburg. 

His brief stay in Lagos must have got him interested in the ankara fabric. He recalled that before leaving Lagos, “I bought about 26 pieces of ankara fabrics, each six metres, at the Balogun Market, Lagos Island.” The works for the Ankara Portraits, he disclosed, “were done on the fabric I bought in Lagos.”

Stephens’ canvases are unusually large for the kind of portrait paintings Lagos galleries are known for. Responding to this observation during a visit to Omenka a few days before the show opened, he explained, “I paint large because my studio is large; I don’t know how big my canvas is until am out.” So, with just 15 pieces, his first major show in Nigeria is like a house full.

Some of the works he is showing include depictions of ladies’ head dress trends in Lagos such as gele and bounded-scarf as well as boys’ hat fashion trend. One of such works, Coral Scarf, a side view of a lady, shows the moderate or casual gele style in portraiture.

Quite interesting how the artist’s separation of colours creates dimensionality, which shoots out the gele, jewelries and blouse from the flesh of the model. And more intriguing is Stephens’ style of diffusing the struggle between the background and the figure, which naturally brings a bond in the single ankara fabric on which the two shares.

In another work, Turquoise Scarf, Golden Light, the less aggressive pattern of the fabric appears to provide the artist with a much subtle ventilation for a stronger method of emphasising the headdress, yet getting the background as complementary as possible.

Whatever made Stephens show interest in the Nigerian art market could just be the beginning of a long relationship. “I am here partly to learn more, kind of residency,” he stated. And part of the learning was drawing his attention to the fact that what he referred to as scarf is called gele in Nigeria. “Oh, I was never told,” he said. “I will take note and correct that next time.”

Some of his works presented at his first contact with Nigerian artists during the CCA event are also included in the Ankara Portraits. Among such works are Teddy Facing and The Check.

It should be recalled that during the CCA presentation, one of his techniques, which has the optical illusion effect, was created either by string screens, vertical lines and pleating the prints of the painting. Then, he told his audience how his journey of experimentation started when one of the galleries in South Africa wanted him to be working on a specific theme, “which I thought would be repeating myself.”

On the African theme for his work, Stephens recalled how “I did a year long art residency in Cape Town at Great More Art Studios, a Triangle Network member.” He considers his art more as documentary and not necessarily ‘a philosophy’. The diversity of urban Africa, he disclosed, fascinates him a lot.

With Ananaba’s canvas, it’s time for Identity Check

By Tajudeen Sowole

Irrespective of the relativity ascribed to values, painter Ibeabuchi Ananaba recommends his Identity Check – a solo art exhibition – in sustaining much-cherished behavioural patterns that dignify humans.

And perhaps in advocating respect for values, charity must begin at home, hence the ambience of strong draughtsmanship, which Ananaba’s brush strokes thrust at the viewer on entering the moderate space of Homestores Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos where the show was mounted. 

Despite the absence of the artist to guide the visitor through the works, the creativity unleashed on canvas was enough to initiate a quiet dialogue between the viewer and the over 40 pieces in the high headroom gallery.

Few days ahead of the opening, Ananaba had explained his thoughts, noting how “value systems are rapidly fading and abnormality is becoming the ideal,” so alarming that the people’s psyche has been infiltrated with all kind of images. He argued that “our future seems in doubt,” as a result of what he described as “organised chaos.”

How Long? By Ibeabuchi Ananaba.

In monochromatic rendition titled Who Are You? Ananaba appears to be playing around two personalities from extreme ends of the value chain, leaving the viewer with the choice of where to belong in the Identity Check challenge. The work, a portraiture, which impressionistically leaves one stranded between a Mahatma Gandhi and an Adolph Hitler look-alike combination, engages the viewer in deep thought. Enhanced by dual key-lighting, the work was among several others that explained the Identity Check challenge, which the artist preaches. Perhaps, not really intended to capture the two people in single artistic impression, Ananaba said it “interrogates and challenges the viewer to look inwards.” He explained how the work “digs deeper with the aim to unveil the true character behind the mask we all put up on the outside.” 

For Nigeria’s strongest centre of commerce, Lagos where the artist is in his 10th year of residence, the yellow colour of taxicabs and buses with black stripes, is an identity worth celebrating. He, however, uses the bright colour as an attempt to unravel Lagos as a state, which imbues people with smartness. In the set of works grouped as Lagos State Of Mind series, he explained, “tell my ‘Lagos’ story, ideologically and not from a geographical viewpoint.”

From the hopeful mentality titled The Optimist, to the Shine Ya Eye set under the Lagos State of Mind Series, he turns identity into a larger than life “tribal marks” using human figural to celebrate the iconic yellow and black stripes.

His depiction sees Lagos as having “all sorts as residents, irrespective of how dense everything is.” And a better tribute could not have come than to “appreciate” the state and “undying drive that pushes one to come here seeking greener pastures.” 

As rich as the content of Ananaba’s show was, the curatorial input brought to fore the artists’ uncontrolled thirst of filling every space in a gallery with works. Save for the high headroom of Homestores Gallery, Identity Check almost lost its value: there was no breathing space for the works. As a new entrant coming to the aid of artists to provide outlet in a culture sector grossly short of art galleries, Homestores should be encouraged to go higher by sustaining a higher standard, particularly in the area of curatorial input.

In trying to wriggle a view – from the extreme end of the gallery – out of the overloaded walls, a consolation came in the form of an isolated oil painting mounted on easel, in the distance. Although not exactly positioned to attract a visitor’s immediate attention, the piece titled How Long? (oil on canvas), and almost backing the entrance of the gallery would later make the top of a critic’s list for this show. Reason: each of the themes in the rest of the works were summarised subtly in How Long? The face up figure on the floor, with folded legs, which from the torso up, dissolves into unidentified person, said so much about placing priority on value, and not the usual struggle for marathon achievement.      Complementing the message of the painting was the artist’s skill, which had the components of a masterpiece.

Added advantage for Ananaba, particularly in the female figures, is his ad studio skills, having worked in the advertising industry nearly all his post-school years. For example, much of the ad skill was noticed in some of the watercolours as well as the Utitled Series (oil on canvas).

Ananaba studied Fine and Applied Arts, majoring in painting with a distinction in HND at Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu State, 1999.

  

Currently, he is Art Group Head at Insight Communications Limited, Lagos. He said his advertising job experience “helps to broaden my understanding of the human mind.”

Picasso… Posthumously 131

Pablo Picasso in the bathtub, first day of his encounter with David Douglas Duncan. PHOTO C/O Cannes, villa de La Californie. © David Douglas Duncan 2011. 

Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881-April 8, 1973), you would have been marking your 131 years on earth this week were the tissues and cells of your body to share the same chemistry with the oils and canvas of those great paintings of yours that are still living today. 

Views in Colours… Osagie’s exits from old palette

BY TAJUDEEN SOWOLE

With Osazuwa Osagie holding his solo show titled Views In Colours at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos from October 27 to November 3, there is no doubt that works from his Objective Period will be on display.

Though he expresses himself weekly, as a contributing cartoonist for a national daily, The Nation, closing that period of his art via the canvas and mainstream art scene, he says, “is a progression.”

Taking guests through some of the works mounted inside his residence-cum-studio in Lagos recently aside from the soft copies, the theme of the show begins to unfold. What exactly is Osagie’s objective art content all about?  “It is about creating argument with images,” he says.

Being among the Nigerian artists that promoted full-time studio practice after graduating in 1984, Osagie’s seeming less prominence in exhibition circuit in recent times takes nothing away from his skill and rating.

In stylised figural Goje Player, his kind of dialogue with art is not missing in a rendition of native and rarely seen musical instrument, bringing rhythms and colours together. Though the strings of the Goje dissolve into the colours, the powers of the high pitch instrument could be felt.

Goje Player By osazuwa Osagie

   

THE spiritual content of objectivity is captured in internal dialogue as In Thought, a somber and lone figure suggests. Between the thinker’s facial expression, made louder and, perhaps, scary by dark shades and the wrapped up part of the arm, the real depression mood is clearly seen.

   From one work to another, the contrast keeps coming, yet within the frame of dialogue. For One Too Many, it’s a dialogue between a man and his bottles, a delicate and dangerous medium of expressing frustration. With sharp brush or palette knife movements, Osagie’s impressionist strokes send the message that we cannot run away from your problems by indulging in alcohol. “Drinking does not solve frustration; it gives temporary excitement that only adds more to your problem,” the artist argues.

Every artist has school nostalgia in different form; Osagie gets his from a painting. It is a work that was painted during his undergraduate days at Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State. It’s a lady in reclining posture titled Zuletu.

 

OLD paintings and drawings are common sight on the walls of Osagie’s studio. They are kept as part of his personal collections. Being possessive of his work, he says, is a hard attitude to drop.

“If I have my way, I would not sell any of my works. I would rather build a museum or gallery where I can keep them, including other artists’ works.”

Majority of works sold out by artists, he argues, end up in the hands of art dealers who dispose them so easily. It’s therefore friendlier to sell directly to collectors, who buy the works for the love of art and share ideas with the artists as friends.”  

It’s therefore not a surprise when he discloses that out of the 40 works for the Views In Colours show, some would not be for sale.

In London, South African artists soar in record sales

Top of three world records at last night’s Bonhams auction of South African art in London is a landscape painting Kransberg, Rustenberg, Transvaal by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957), which sold for £361,250 (R5m), a source from the sales disclosed.

Next on the top sales comes Red Jacket, an image by Vladimir Griegorovich Tretchikoff (1913-2006), sold at £337,250 (R4.7m). It’s about the artist’s muse and one-time lover.

It was estimated to sell for £50,000 to £80,000. Tretchikoff was a Russian emigrant and described as South Africa’s “most controversial artist.”

The third world record of the sales, The Garden of Eden by Stanley F. Pinker (1924-2012), estimated to sell for £70,000 to £100,000 was sold for £337,250 (R4.7m).

Kransberg, Rustenberg, Transvaal by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957) sold for £361,250 (R5m) at South African auction of Bonhams, London sales, yesterday  

Pierneef’s pair of daylight lit-mountain and farm images, Cape Farmlands, also made a world record for the artist, beating the previous record, set at Bonhams in 2008, five times over). Estimated to sell for £70,000 to £100,000, the pair “was sold at £289,250 (4m).”

A self-taught artist, Gladys Mgudlandlu (1917-1979), also set for herself a new world record with 'The newly weds', an intimate scene sold for £27,500 (R384, 000).

Total sales of £3.1m (R43.5m), according to sources, have been recorded at the Bonhams auction.

Bonhams’ Director of African Art, Giles Peppiatt, said: “The message of this sale is that while the best South African artworks continue to reach world record prices in London where the world comes to buy, bidders are being far more selective. You might say that the market is maturing and that the stampede to buy everything available that we saw five years ago, has passed for now into much more thoughtful and sophisticated buying.” 

Part of Pierneef’s PROVENANCE of Kransberg, Rustenberg, Transvaal says: Acquired directly from the artist by the Geological Survey for presentation to director Dr L.T. Nel on his retirement. Thence by descent by the current owner Pierneef chose to paint the Kransberg mountain for its particularly geological subject matter, which he felt was appropriate for this commission.

Of his 1950s landscapes Anton Hendriks wrote, "Pierneef painted Africa. His landscapes were different from anything seen in paint before. Baines, Oerder and others had painted the same scenes, but Pierneef saw them with new eyes. He created a new style out of this new subject matter." (Ibid. p.101)

Pierneef used the same composition in a smaller pencil work dated 1943 (private collection).

Stakeholders to battle destroyers of public space art

By Tajudeen Sowole

From what seemed like a sidon-look posture, artists and other stakeholders appeared to have woken up to confront the recurring denigration of public space art works.

Spurred by the pulling down of master, Yusuf Grillo’s frieze and defacement of Late Prof Agbo Folarin’s mosaic at the ongoing renovation of Muritala Muhammed Airport (MMA-1)’s lounge, Lagos, artists, connoisseurs and other stakeholders have set out on a journey to draw the attention of relevant government agencies to the insensitivity and stop further destruction of similar heritage across the country.

Three organisations Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation (BOF) and Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi-led Yusuf Grillo Pavilion met with representatives of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) to strategise on how to confront the raging disregard for monuments and historical values. Held at OYASAF’s office in Maryland, Lagos, the gathering which had the Secretary of SNA, Chuka Nnabuife and sculptor Olu Amoda in attendance resolved to meet with the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah and the Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke.

 Few months ago, a hint from Amoda over the fate of some art works had prompted a visit to the airport. The report from the visit, published on this page and led to reactions from artists showed that some art works at the arrival lounge, which have been identified with the edifice’s 33 years history, could be missing in the expanded space. Such works include Flight, 5-piece frieze (on each side of the arrival lounges) produced by 78 years-old Grillo and a glass mosaic mural, Spirit of Man in Flight, by late art academician Folarin (erected at the entrance.) In fact, Grillo’s ten works have been reduced to one while Folarin’s mosaic was defaced by the new, though opaque aluminum panel, which concealed the colourful 1981 work from its original position.  Grillo’s works were in concrete, and about 12 feet in height, 8 in breadth for each of the 10 friezes mounted in two parts of five at both ends of the lounges.

Commissioned on March 15, 1979, the MMA-1 have works of other artists such as Demas Nwoko, Isiaka Osunde, Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya and Sam Uchendu.

The convener of the gathering, Prince Yemisi Shyllon noted that aside the works of Grillo and Folarin at the airports, there are other art pieces in public space being destroyed or removed across the country. He cited mosaic work by Grillo at the new Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Complex Surulere, Lagos. Shyllon noted the importance of the meeting as a vehicle to alert the “Nigerian people about the danger in destroying cultural value,” which the art in public spaces represent. 

Also, Onobrakpeya drew the attention of the gathering to another work at a roundabout in Effunrun, near Warri, Delta State. Onobrakpeya whose work is presumed ‘safe’ among that of the masters at the MMIA said he was not happy when he visited and saw the state of Folarin’s work. “I went to the airport and was not pleased when I saw Folarin’s works,” he lamented, and wished that there was a law in place, “which protects public art, so we can invoke it to correct this insensitivity.”

Nnabuife argued that works of art in public space belongs to the people and should be protected by those in government. He described destruction of art in public space as “horrible and unacceptable.”

Aligning with an earlier observation that  an act or statue to protect art in public was crucial to the agitation of the stakeholders, Gbadamosi urged that in the meantime  something urgent need to be done “to preserve the heritage value of the works.” He recalled a National Gallery of Art (NGA) bill in process at the last national assembly, which if passed into law could have been used to seek redress.  

Currently, there is no bill before the new National Assembly, so disclosed sources from the government as there were indications that a fresh process of enacting laws on art practice, including protection of art in public space would have to start all over.

At the end of the deliberation at OYASAF, an ad hoc committee was mandated to visit the airport and get he current state of the remaining works on which the delegation to the ministries of Aviation and Tourism, Culture and National Orientation would work. 

So far, the official response of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was that “there is whole aesthetic plan to the remodeling program.” This much was extracted from the office of the General Manager, Public Affairs, FAAN, in July when the denigration was exposed.  

Observers had argued that if indeed, the “remodeling” would accommodate another set of art pieces, living artists of the original works affected by the expansion should be retained for the new works.

Describing the concept of his work, Grillo recalled that “the idea was to represent, in abstract term, flight in nature.” The work, he disclosed “took two years, from conception to installation.”

However, Gbadamosi, a former minister alerted stakeholders at the gathering to be ready for a tough battle, noting that “it is not easy to confront officialdom.”

With Beyond Silver Gelatin, collage art goes digital

By Tajudeen Sowole

Four years after U.S-based photographer, Dr Olusegun Fayemi showed some images of digitalised technique in Lagos, his attempt to blur the line between painting and photography comes stronger in collage form.

Currently on as Beyond Silver Gelatin: Mixed Media Photography at Quintessence Gallery Falomo, Lagos, the new works of Fayemi could have passed as collage paintings.

In Fayemi’s work, the scientific characteristics of photography is combined with art and cultural value of using images as narratives, particularly to express African contemporaneity. And that his themes, most times centre on African women and children – a mission he embarked on to offer alternative images to the west  – also makes the technique potent.

In 2009, when he showed a body of work titled Mothers of Africa at the same venue, it was all about image processing, bringing original photo shoot from black and white to diverse tones and shades of colours. With Beyond Silver Gelatin, the artist goes a step further into larger than life by cutting pieces of fabric onto the processed images in collage-like technique. The result is an impressionistic look, which makes the monochrome original either faints or fades underneath the louder and vibrant collage of fabric with the digital imaging. Adorned, Party Time, Gele and Three In One are examples of the narratives, which also produce outlines that could represent drawings.

He insists that the process “begins usually with a black and white negative that I scan under high resolution into a computer from which a fine photographic print is made.” The resulting images, he explained, is altered, using digital “to a realistic, artistic representation or an abstraction of the original.”

Three in One, by Dr Olusegun Fayemi

Bringing his science discipline to bare on his passion for art, within the context of photography, Fayemi’s experiment appears like a conscious effort to achieve painting without the conventional art studio tools. “For decades I did fine art and documentary black and white photography in the footsteps of illustrious and dedicated practitioners of the craft,” he stated. However with the dynamics of photography in recent times, seen what he noted as “unprecedented explosion of technological advances,” the boundaries between art, craft and photography is disaapearing.

From the evolution of photography and how his art is bringing new images to collapse the line between genres, comes the theme. He recalled how in photography, the gelatin silver process was used for black and white films and printing paper. For his fourth showing in Nigeria, the theme, he said, “focuses on the diversity and multiplicity of imagery that emanates from process. These images articulate the realities of contemporary Africans as they traverse a wide spectrum in the rhythm of their daily lives and they reveal timeless narratives of how Africans live and the nuances that shape those lives.”

In the past, Fayemi’s passion for image change has led to authorship of books such as Windows to the Soul: Photographs Celebrating African Women; Voices From Within: Photographs of African Children; Balancing Acts: Photographs from West Africa. All books published in the US.

Assessing the impact of his works in or changing the west’s stereotypes about Africa, Fayemi averred that it’s still a long journey as perception is hard to change.

Having shown Fayemi more than once,  Quintessence Gallery’s attraction to his work is based on the “qualities of analogue and the versatile potential of digital imaging,” the curator, Moses Ohiomokhare stated. “He is exposing us to a new art, science and practice of photography and pushing the boundaries.”

Fayemi studied photography privately with Alex Harsely and Richard Sternschuss of New York, at the New School for Research and the International Centre for Photography and Zone VI studios, Newfane, Vermont. In the last twenty-nine years, he has engaged his energies in documentary photography and this has taken him to different parts of the world.

The Eden Before Muraina Akeem

BY TAJUDEEN SOWOLE

IN contemplation of a lost paradise, the sculptor Muraina Akeem finds solace in The Eden Before Us in his latest solo show that ended on Sunday October 7 at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos.

While recalling the earth’s sanctity before the creation of man, Akeem cites how man’s poor judgment and misplacement of priorities led to pollution and degradation of the earth.

The show, which aroused interest of conservationists, catalogues human woes arising from environmental degradation as a result of rowing industrial activities and illicit hunting.

Mago from, The Eden Before Us

Subtly stylised, some of the works such as Olofofo Series, giraffes in different moods; Oferege, a depiction of antelope; Adigboluja, the strength of the bull; the Rabit Series may be a delight to see, they also remind man of his responsibility to nature, by helping to prevent these species from extinction.   

It could be daunting a task preventing these endangered species from going into extinction, but Akeem states: “The advice to learn from the animal species, which is the peculiar content of this show becomes one of the paramount corrective measures. It is quite important to pay attention and to see with a child’s innocence and sincerity before adulthood experiences.”

And taking reference from man’s belief in spiritual beings, the sculptor notes that the Almighty, the Beneficent, has spoken through the scriptures:  ‘go ye and learn from the ant …’ to correct yourselves when we fail to listen to the prophets.”

Christening his work Metaalmorphosis, Akeem explains how the concept offers animals, represented by the objects to interact with man. Perhaps, the objects, on behalf of the animals may be asking viewers questions concerning man’s self-destructive activities.

The artist also takes his argument into re-circle waste as part of preservation of the environment, bringing life out of the dead. The works, which are made from discarded mechanical machine parts, resonate the dynamics and benefit of rediscovering life after death.

His thoughts, he stresses, is all about redirecting man’s conscious self from the prevailing mad rush for material wealth. He asks: “Why would individuals be competing in building houses in tens to encage his body, knowing fully well that the body’s utmost bed is 6ft?”

He notes that perverted justice creates different laws for the rich and the poor in the society. The rich, he argues are looting in billions and trillions of Naira, knowing too well that the stomach only need 1/3 of its capacity each for food, water and air… rather than pompous diet, which will lead to a sick heart or a sick bed that is the most hunted.”

He urges everyone to make the earth get back her green, so that we can all stay under her canopy for shade and regain our energy to truly recreate the desired blissful threshold of our haven.”

Extending his satirical rendition he names Kangaroo, ‘Ab’oja gbooro’ (baby friendly). The animal, he says, “is to prop our women who suddenly devote much of their energy on building their career to the neglect of their duties as mothers, thus leading to the collapse moral value.”