Review written by Osinachi Okafor; Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION:
The review of “I am Artist” an exhibition by a select group of artists that cuts across diverse media comes with a lot of expectations. The exhibition title was quite fascinating, hence the attraction for this review. Having a holistic view of the entire exhibition provided the platform to examine each piece of work in their presentation.
The curator did a very professional work in the sequence of arrangement of the works on display. The exhibition space was adequate and well lit, the ventilation was adequate with an ambiance of satisfaction.
A personal interview with the curator set the tone for the review of this exhibition as her in-depth knowledge of exhibition organisation and installation attests. Artist interviewed were more excited about the composition of the exhibition which included performance and run-away fashion show, as well as other exquisite wall hanging paintings, sculpture and drawings.
The review that follows is an attempt to give a bird’s-eye view of the ensemble. The radiance and intriguing aura created by the rich oeuvres of the exhibiting artists, accompanied by the background classical music that silently blasted all through the duration of the show overwhelmed the studio and its environs as an uncountable number of art patrons, lovers and enthusiasts trooped in and out of the studio smiling from ear to ear.
Unlike previous numerous exhibitions in the East, I am Artist was theme-free. Giving its contributing artists the absolute liberty to explore thematic and formalistic narratives of choice, most of which were contemporary and proudly African. The artistic freedom to explore mediums, methodologies and iconographies of choice paved the way for originality in the manner the exhibiting artists told their stories.
The curator, Chinelo Jeni Enemuo believed that no overarching theme would make the artists ‘…walk away from the stage feeling seen, heard, validated and ultimately fulfilled’. Asides from being a curator, Enemuo is an urbanist, creative artist and design educator. She has a bachelor’s degree in Architectural design from KNUST, Ghana and a Master’s degree in Urban Design from Leeds Beckett UK. At exactly 1 pm, the show started with Enemuo’s opening speech at the fashion room segment of the studio, already packed with the seated enthusiastic and passionate audience.
A heart warming performance by Tony, the flexible acrobatic dancer flagged off the event, followed by a fashion show led by Chiamaka Peace Njoku, an exhibiting artist who is a fashion designer with a BA in textile design from the art school of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.
Njoku’s fashion parade was a wealthy and sophisticated display of Avant-garde fashion designs shaped mostly for run-way. Her models showcased a variety of fun and creative outfits made out of her repertoire of detailed and colourful fashion illustrations and sketches, also on display in the same room beside her sales stand.
This stand also featured affordable flamboyant aprons and fashionable mortar stands. The fashion show ended with Njoku introducing herself and her masterpiece ‘Busted Ego’ which is a site-specific mixed media installation and performance art located in the gallery section of the studio.
The slightly larger than life size headless mannequin stood right in the middle of the gallery which shares a similarity to Nigerian British artist, Yinka Shonibare’s headless mannequins. It appeared to be a stylish headless lady (though her trendy sequins headband was unavoidably visible) with an Avant-Garde dress sense of a ball gown full of inflated balloons stuffed with ‘candies’ as the surprise gift inside of each balloon when burst. It was quite an active show as the audience paid rapt attention to ‘the hidden treasures inside each balloon.
While some people were fascinated by the art of pricking each balloon with the toothpicks provided by Njoku and the sound it created, others meant serious business clamouring for the candies that kept dropping rapidly to the floor as the balloons burst, finally leaving room for another beautiful masterpiece- a spontaneous end-product of the performance art.
It was ironic to Marina Abramovich’s ‘Rhythm 0’ of 1974 where she allowed the audience to do whatever they wanted with her naked self at the mercy of the destructive weapons, she left at their disposal. It was described as ‘masochist’ and ‘sadistic’ as she is left with those scars from the performance art for life. Njoku’s comic performance art was gleeful and fun and performed on an inanimate object with just a toothpick as a weapon.
With the candies gone and the deflated balloons left to enjoy their serendipity, the pumped audience was left with no other alternative than to enjoy the beautiful paintings and sculptures on display in the gallery and the next adjoining room as they nibbled on their chewable candy.
The gallery was filled with lovely paintings of young promising artists on display, one of which was featured as the cover art of the exhibition catalogue, ‘Paradox II’ by Osinachi Okafor, a female artist and art historian of the art school of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and mentored by Wallace Ejoh, a popular Lagos artist, tells a story of duplicity, coming out, and breaking free from societal expectations totally different from the one true self locked up in bondage.
These feelings were appropriately expressed in the creative application of vibrant complementary colours of the blues and oranges of the portraiture. As an expressionist, being likened to Van Gogh, her colours tell her emotions.
Another eye-catcher with a similar storyline was ‘Risk, Beauty, Dare’ by Chima Ikegwuonu, a male architect and artist born in 1989 in Bamenda, Cameroon but now living in Nigeria, his home town. His large landscape with an emerging male figure in his eureka moment portrays the freedom that comes with taking risks and the beauty that comes with the realization of inner self.
With his impasto approach, the rich green flora of the painting made the viewer feel alive and one with the painting. It also created an optical illusion of being inside it as the size was so large that it looked site-specific and a part of the gallery too. The audience was so drawn to the piece that it served as a background to many pictures taken in the show.
Moses Onugadi Njoku’s ‘Child Soldier’ was among the numerous portable sculptures on display in the same room. It told a story of a child recruited in the army as the case of many children during the Nigerian Civil war. Child Soldier is a visual commentary on one of the bad sides of war and militancy.
The abuse and forceful conscription of children as soldiers. The artist hoped to remind the society through his work that no war is ever won on the battlefield and the ravaging effects of war could be avoided through diplomacy and tact. With their childhood and innocence gone, they often leave this world scarred, ruined and maimed with little or no chances of rehabilitation and salvation.
Moses Onugadi Njoku is a professional sculptor from Imo State and an art educator in the art school of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He is married to Chiamaka Peace Njoku.
Again, Stephen Umahi’s ‘Brave Tortoise’ also a portable sculpture, apart from being aesthetically appealing with the construction of a welded found objects like padlocks and motor chains, makes its way into the mind of the audience for reminisces of our African folklores where the tortoise is often always the hero due to its cunningness and bravery. Umahi is a first-class graduate of sculpture from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He hails from Ebonyi State.
The adjoining room exposes us more to the rich African culture and stories told in the art of Chioma Okoli, an Enugu state full-time studio artist with the curator. She is a product of the art school of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu.
Her art style is synonymous to the modernism approach of Ben Enwonwu and Uche Okeke. Her work ‘Spirit’ reminds us of our strong belief in the existence of spirits. The ones in us, the ones who have left us to the great beyond and the ones who still dwell amongst us.
One can never look away from Okonkwo Chinonyelum’s rich display of colours and shapes in her abstract paintings ‘Dreamer’. The painting leaves its viewers dreaming in the swimming rhythms of lines, patterns, figures and stories afloat in the painting. It recalls one of our dreams and aspirations and how far gone we are in realizing them. Okonkwo is a female painter and art instructor currently residing in Awka with her husband and children.
The realism renderings of Agu Olisa Ifeanyi in his work ‘Over blessed’ and Kenechukwu Chidozie in his pencil work “Child maltreatment cannot be overemphasized as these different art styles added variety and spice to the exhibition.
Child maltreatment draws our attention to the abuse and neglect that occurs with children under 18 years of age, which has become a global problem with serious life-long consequences like juvenile deficiencies, female health issues like Vesico Vagina Fistula, cervical cancer amongst numerous others and most times, death. It reminds all of the children’s right to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse.
The impressions of Alobele Chiemelie Cyprian in his still-life composition of fruits, titled “nourish/ blessing” reminds us of the tropical fruits relative to our region and their health benefits. In Eastern Nigeria, fruits are seen as a sign of blessings.
Right in the middle of gallery sat Emeka Elijah Nwali’s life-size intricate constructed sculptures. “Fallen to pieces” is a sculpture of a slave bounded with chains, who is just fed with life and its never-ending challenges. He appears to have accepted his fate.
Fallen to pieces is an allusion to mental slavery. It is a reflection of the current state of the nation where corruption has become the order of the day. And the failure of the agencies of socialization- families, religious institutions and government. It is a call for action on the part of the youth to not only speak up, but to act, as many are gradually losing it and others have utterly “fallen to pieces”. The artist yet reminds us that we alone can emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. Nwali is a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists, Lagos. He is from Ebonyi State.
Exiting the adjoining room was a hallway where we have an honorary stand for the commemoration of late Chidiomimi Ezeno, a child artist and member of the studio who died at age 9. This stand has his painting with a pair of wings attached where visitors are required to ‘…paint in the whites of Chidiomimi’s wings’. This is another performance art that required the active participation of the audience in art creation. Chidiomimi was described as an angel to all who had contact with him, hence the symbolism of the wings attached to his realistic portraiture.
This hallway led to the reception where the visitors are received. There was also an affluent display of the Exhibition catalogues beautifully designed and written by the delectable Chinelo Jeni Enemuo, monochromatic tote bags with prints of the exhibited artworks on them so that everyone could go with an art piece, artsy T-shirts and key-holders, delicious large cake slices and assorted drinks, all for sale at affordable prices as a form of raising funds. The exhibition was sociologically, psychologically, culturally and intellectually engaging and successful.
References cited:
Enemuo, Chinelo J, 2021. I am Artist: Nelen Studios, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
Nwafor, Okechukwu, 2019. Beyond Borders: Global Africa curated by Laura de Becker A. Alfred Taubman Gallery, University of Michigan Museum of Art August 11-November 25, 2018. African Arts 52(3):75-77