By
Tajudeen Sowole
From
the notion of elusive goals, comes sculptor Adeola Balogun's thought expressed
in his just held solo art exhibition titled Mirage, and held at Quintessence Gallery, Lekki, Lagos.
Recalling the inspiration behind his choice of
the title, Balogun listed quite a number of situations, including water-like
reflecting surface seen from a distance on asphalted roads but disappears too
soon. But the artist, sub-consciously sent a chills down one's spine when he
listed, as example of a mirage the recovery of the much-awaited return of the
Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Harram terrorists. He recalled how he likened
the return of the kidnapped girls to the mirage of reflective asphalt surface.
"I was in Abu Dhabi, UAE during the heat of the debate over the kidnapped
Chibok girls." He added that "I saw the mirage constantly on hot
asphalt in Abu Dhabi and decided to use it as a metaphor on the missing Chibok
girls."
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Mirage Series from Adeola Balogun’s art exhibition
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From using metal in most of his works, about
six to seven years ago, Balogun has, in the last few years added discarded
materials such in shredded rubber from tyres. For Mirage, it's a mix of the rubber, wire-mesh and steel sponge as
well as paints. Some of the works included a chilling mixed media that has a
bar piercing through a heart. Titled Through
Our Hearts, it underscores the mood of a country like Nigeria at a period
of unprecedented state of insecurity. Also, in works such as Hiding Place and Protective Ring, Balogun implores the power of creativity to scold the
leadership of the country on what he described as state of lawlessness. "A
lot of impunity going on in Nigeria shows that the country is a haven for
lawless people."
Some of the works also reflect his residency
programme in Abu Dhabi. He explained that the residency was based on the
participants' experience in the host country as well as thoughts on Arabs in
general. For him, a popular Arab's folktale Aladin
and the Magic Lamp came into focus. To interpret the themes at the
residency, some of the works he produced and also shown at Quintessence
included Mirage Series.
And as a tribute to the mothers of the Chibok
Girls, he also showed Veil Series, a
set of works that attempt to peep into the "feelings of the mothers of the
kidnapped girls, in comparison with that of sympathisers.
Surprisingly, the sculptor showed more
drawings than sculptures at Mirage in
the ratio of over 20 to about eight. Reason: "I needed to quickly
contribute to the exigency of this trying period." The drawings, he said,
"are dedicated to the Chibok girls." He however noted that "from
time to time, the hope of getting the Chibok girls back has become a
mirage." But despite a seemingly hopeless situation, the artist prayed
that the girls would one day return to their families.
Balogun explained his work as a
"reflective of either spontaneous engagement or long contemplation on my
visual encounters depending on circumstance."
His artist's statement read in parts " I
often engage in resuscitation of seemingly ‘dead’ discarded objects by redirecting
the inherent energy in them in order to offer a different life imbued with
fresh multilayered meaning pertaining to my sensibilities.
"My charcoal drawings are spontaneous
exercises that channel a layering of real and surreal ideas coalesced to
reference my multiple cultural interactions in recent times. The spontaneity in
my rhythmic mark making in varied thicknesses with dramatic rendering alludes to
the notion of people’s divergent perspective and opinion on any particular
issue which is often determined by numerous factors such as religion, culture
amongst others.
People,
places, books, music, myth, folklore in conjunction with used/ready-made objects
serve as stimulus towards my visual contemplations. Thus, it is pertinent to
state that every piece in this body of work is imbued and charged with the
current and dynamics of the experiential encounter and available material that
evoked its production."
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