By Tajudeen Sowole
About 72 hours after sculptor, Adeola Balogun’s solo art exhibition
titled Soundspiration, opened at
Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi Lagos, the artist also commenced work on another
project Matter Redirected in Uttersberg, Sweden, as workshops and
exhibitions which lasted for two months.
Just back in Lagos two months
after redirecting his Matter, Balogun
shared his experience at a small gathering hosted by the facilitator of the
Swedish trip, Quintessence, Park View Estate {formerly at Falomo}, Ikoyi,
Lagos.
Viewed in soft copies, Balogun’s
works from the Matter Redirected
project is an apparent continuation of his conservation themes as most of the
works, in metal and drawings, stress the artist’s recently-found passion for
animals that have the characteristics of strength.
Shortly after participating in an art exhibition organised by a Lagos-based conservation group, few years ago, Balogun, a Senior lecturer in Yaba College of Technology{Yabatech}, Lagos, suddenly developed interest in depicting bull and some species in the bird family, But with the Swedish trip, equestrian subjects seems to have found a wider space in his themes.
The central theme of the Swedish workshop and exhibition, he says, is all about “giving another life to discarded things”. Over the past four years, the artist has explored materials such as shredded rubber from tyres in creating sculptural works that links waste, recycling and environmental as well as social metaphor.
In Sweden, his thoughts on redirecting matter, he explais, were expressed in “14 metal sculptures, 18 drawings for one show and 14 sculptures, 16 drawings for another”.
Between the two animals, Balogun’s renditions in metal and drawing stress the combined strength and elegance of horse while the crude, perhaps, bestial behavioural of the bull seems to challenge and stretch the artist’s skills. Though in metal, a close up of a horse’s head titled The Wild One, for example exudes the artist’s drawing skill; much like the skeletal frames of the animal. But with Tamed, the equestrian theme gets a full size representation in patterned and textured look. For the bull, quite a number of drawings, for example, a piece he titled Veteran, explain the aggressiveness of the animal.
In 2011, Balogun had
used the bull as a driving force of his central theme in the solo art
exhibition Ants and Giants. Then, he fronted the bull, in series, as a
metaphor for possible revolt of the people against any oppressive regime.
And the effort of
Quintessence is quite commendable; in Nigerian art scene where artist hardly
get support from art galleries beyond providing venues for exhibition. In fact,
Quintessence’s commitment in promoting Nigerian artists outside the country
predates Balogun’s Matter Redirected. Quintessence had, in 2007
sponsored similar trip for artist, Kunle Adeyemi as well as supported a group
of ceramists, all to Sweden. The exchange between Quintessence and Sweden
dates back to the visit of Swede artist, Eva Zetterval to Lagos in 2008.
The curator of the
gallery, Moses Ohiomokhare, while noting that artists need to showcase their
work abroad, discloses that Balogun’s trip has been jointly financed by Sweden.
"This is being funded by Quintessence, Astley Gallery at Uttersberg with
the support of the Nigerian Embassy in Stockholm Sweden”.
He explains that the
exposure of the artist’s work “has become necessary to open up this prolific
artist to research and new techniques in his field of study”.
According to
the curator, Balogun’s exhibitions in Sweden started in Trollhattan, on
June 1, and on 29 moved to Astley Gallery,
Uttersberg.
On inspiration, Balogun notes that an artist must, naturally, “be moved” by
passion to adequately represent a “perceived objects or scenes either on a flat
surface or on a three dimensional Format”.
Though Balogun
discloses that the workshop aspect of the project was not fully realised, the
entire trip, Ohiomokhare explains, offered the artist opportunity to use the
exhibitions “as a moving testament of the creative skill of the Nigerian artist
and to promote our culture and capabilities”.
For the
artist, his Swedish trip also yielded an offer to show in the U.S. before the
end of the year.
The Nigerian
Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries, Benedict Onochie Amobi, who is based
in Stockholm was the special guest at the opening of the exhibitions, Balogun
said.
The artist’s last
solo show in Nigeria, Soundspiration, which opened a day before he
traveled to Sweden brings a musical tone into his art of imploring discarded
materials. Some of the works, produced from shredded rubber, rendered in life
size figural combines musical instruments.
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