By Damiete Braide
A group art exhibition featuring seven up-and-coming young artistes is currently ongoing at Rele Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos. The exhibition, which opened on Sunday, January 8, is an initiative of The Rele Arts Foundation, and it is on its eighth edition.
Young Contemporaries programme started in 2016, and it identifies, mentors and promotes early-career artists from Africa, by equipping them with tools and resources for artistic development.
Each year, the foundation guides artists via its virtual boot camp and residency programme in Ado-Ekiti towards the creation of critical projects, encouraging innovative explorations of existing inquiries, as well as the birth of fresh ideas.
According to the organisers, this year’s edition presents new projects done over the course of six months by seven artists: Adeniyi Adewole, Adetutu Adediran, Hanson Okere, Yoma Emore, Seidougha Linus Eyimiegha, Elfreda Fakoya and Tosobuafo Matilda Bardi. They worked across a diverse range of mediums from textile material to aluminum dust; engaging complex issues from Diasporic and familial identity to migration and urban traffic culture.
The Young Contemporaries 2023 project presents the audience with a collection of distinct and exciting perspectives on contemporary issues while also drawing attention to the exciting and critical work being done by a younger generation of contemporary African artists.
Adetutu Adediran, a visual artist and conceptual photographer, is a graduate with B.Tech in Chemistry, from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology.
Adediran says the issue of mass migration from Nigeria dates back to the 1970s exemplified by the mid-80s propaganda TV commercial ‘Andrew checking out’ . The photography and audio project, ‘Now we are leaving’, documents the present day exodus of Nigerians. It draws from current migration trends in the country as well as American painter Jacob Lawrence’s depiction of black Americans migrating from the south to the North in his Migration series.
Framed at the point of departure, the photographs act as ways of saying goodbye and as repositories of personal migration stories. My use of balloons as a recurring motif reference the desire for self-actualisation and the pursuit of dreams that often propel migration.
Adeniyi Adewole Wasiu, a contemporary sculptor born in Ibadan, studied Arts and Culture at the Yaba College of Technology. Adewole is also an art instructor and co-founder of the Ayowole Academy of Arts.
Wasiu says: “My work explores the past and the present, especially with regard to the Yoruba people. In my practice, I delve into parts of Yoruba history, culture, mythology, folklore and fables in uncovering and producing metaphors that speak to social issues in contemporary African societies. Working predominantly in figuration, I source my primary material from discarded aluminum shavings — as an alternative to waste — as well as incorporating found, manufactured objects.
“In my work, I am also interested in exploring and presenting the surreal which informed my replacement of the human head with stainless steel balls. According to Yoruba philosophical thought, beyond the physical head seen outside, there is a ‘head’ regarded as a person’s spiritual essence, the home of one’s intuition.”
Yoma Emore is a visual artist working across digital and textile medium. She has a Bachelor’s degree, in Art & Design, Media and Cultural Studies from the University of Worcester, in the UK. In 2018, she obtained a Master’s degree in Textile Design from Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London), specialising in digital textile printing.
Emore says: “I tell stories through fabric manipulation and an exploration of text and imagery. As fabric is a marker of identity, my choices of fabric in every piece I create deeply relate to the specific story that I am telling. Additionally, the relationship between text and image in a single frame is one that I have always found interesting.
“My presented body of work is a biographical exploration of my father’s stories as a response to the way my immediate older brother defines himself: “Son of an international landscaper.”