The Nation Newspaper

Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

  • Oshinowo and his pellucid visual poetry

    Oshinowo and his pellucid visual poetry

    The pendulum swung and the clock ticked; Kolade Oshinowo the master painter of bucolic sceneries and elegant figurative compositions is 70. Yesterday, February 6, he joined the septuagenarian club—a privileged age in our tumultuous country Nigeria. If the success of great contemporary Nigerian artists is measured by erected sculptures, Oshinowo’s image would have been monumental.

    Oshinowo is a master of poetic ambience. His canvases of scenic rural villages are usually rendered in palpable naturalistic presence. There is an excellent command of good draughtsmanship and remarkable painterly qualities in his works.

    In the hands of Kolade Oshinowo, canvases are saturated with layers of translucent yet opaque palettes. The brush strokes are rapid but tamed in their restless mobility. In his search for the ultimate visual resonance, Oshinowo imbues his works with effervescent ebullience, thereby making his paintings ever so adorable.

    Though his greatness was spurred by his creative industry, he is also a beloved mentor; having tutored many students and younger generation of artists in Nigeria. Oshinowo was a lecturer at the reputable Yaba College of Technology between 1974 and 2008,the year he retired gracefully. He at varying times served as Head of Department of Fine Arts and Dean, School of Art, Design and Printing. He was later appointed as the Deputy Rector of the entire Institution where he demonstrated abundantly that an organised artist could be a unique asset to successful administration.

    Oshinowo’s sterling qualities include unparalleled adherence to professional best practices. An artist with good reputation for finesse, he never left a painting unsigned and carelessly completed. His relationships with connoisseurs remain mutually respectful which to a large extents accounts for his entrepreneurial success.

    Oshinowo is the quintessential “omoluabi” in Yoruba sociocultural worldview. He is a complete gentleman who in spite of the acquired meritocratic fame remains humble. He is a leader who treats his mentees with dignifying respect. An unassuming Master artist, Kolade Oshinowo always creates time to inspire and attend exhibitions of upcoming artists.

    His selflessness culminated in his elections to serve the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) his umbrella professional body in various capacities including the clamour for it’s presidency in 2005. When he completed his tenure as SNA President, he had navigated the ship of the association from stormy waters to a more restful abode.

    Oshinowo is one of the few Nigerian academics who successfully combined active studio practice with the demands of scholarship. During the long period of his teaching career at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, he consistently engaged the public with fresh paintings at regular solo exhibitions and group shows. This in spite of the exigencies of teaching and administrative responsibilities made Oshinowo astonishingly

    prolific. His fertile and inventive mind finds luxuriant expressions  in painting the countryside and country life. He equally interrogated the social conditions of those living in urban slums and translated his findings into visual realities.

    While valourizing the sartorial elegance of  females in many of his figurative compositions, he depicted them as a positive and purposeful gender in our male chauvinistic society. He nevertheless captured their fears and anxieties both as weaknesses and as strengths that define femininity.

    It may be difficult to find another painter with nobler intentions and aspirations than Kolade Oshinowo. He is unmatched in visual pellucidity. In an unusual creative manner, he poetises his paintings by eliminating the extraneous thereby making his messages comprehensible. Even in the seemingly ambiguous crowded scenes with ambivalent visual possibilities, Oshinowo is still faithful to art as a veritable means of clear communication.

    Recently, he pointedly paid attention to the ills of the Nigerian society which is equally emblematic of other African States. He interrogated issues of violence as noticeable in the Boko Haram insurgency, the unwarranted killings and kidnapping in many parts of the country and the new phenomenal herdsmen and farmers violence. In spite of the thematic distaste, Oshinowo manages to bring out paintings that are forever formally enduring and endearing.

    Oshinowo is proud of his Zaria Art School background. He enrolled in1968 and graduated in 1972 with a flying grade. He belonged to the second generation of those who graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. These set of artists decidedly eked out a good measure of fame and recognition from the the first generation who were significantly notable and already well established. The intervention of the “Zaria rebels” in contemporary art historical narrative cannot be underestimated. The revolution of synthesizing indigenous traditions with that of Western art culture was carefully orchestrated and branded  in the 1960s and 70s by the first generation Zarianists; the ripples still continue till date.

    The students of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in the late 1960s and early 1970s belonged to a new Post Independence era. They considered the issue of sociocultural identity as peripheral unlike the dominant Pan Africanist spirit before independence. Their immediate ideology was to foster the new prevalent Nigerian social consciousness.

    The oil boom from the crude oil wealth in the 1960s and 1970s had engendered elitist social values resulting in intense merrymaking, materialism and epicurean adventures. There were also the negative consequences of the recklessness such as avarice, corruption, military aberration and the eventual civil war in the Eastern parts of Nigeria. These became the thematic preoccupation of the fresh graduates in the 1970s and early 80s.

    Oshinowo and his Zaria colleagues celebrated good draughtsmanship and established a new form of academic naturalism; each with nuanced stylistic offerings. They therefore knowingly or by accident challenged the orthodoxical tendencies of the first generation and thus established a more contemporary realism in Nigerian art. Prominent amongst the new protagonists were David Dale, dele jegede, Sina Yusuf and Gani Odutokun to mention a few.

    Oshinowo toeing the footsteps of Yusuf Grillo,  probably more than any other lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos influenced and steered the paths of many students to the peculiar academic naturalism that is today typical of the Yaba Art School. The Yaba phenomenon include the graphic and semi graphic visual renditions of  popular  Lagos scenes and everyday urban occurrences.

    In spite of his simple thematic engagements,Oshinowo transcends the vanity orientation of many upcoming artists who seem to be triumphant in popular naturalistic renditions.  His subject matter are contextualized and properly interrogate Nigerian sociopolitical exigencies. His strong sense of reality according to him,made him to be preoccupied with man and his environment.

    Oshinowo has won many national and international awards for his robust creativity and commitment to artistic excellence. He is revered as an artist, educator, mentor and indeed has become a living legend. A good number of articles, essays and books on his oeuvre have been published. A  book edited by Jess Castelotte was recently published and it contains dissecting articles from eminent scholars including his bosom friend; an intense, penetrating and insightful words smith in the person of Professor dele jegede, who a couple of years ago was celebrated by family and friends when he also clocked seventy.

    Beyond the façade of professionalism and intellectual seriousness, Oshinowo is very friendly. Ebullient amidst friends, he laughs heartily and cracks creative jokes. He is loyal and generous to his family and friends. His biological children are very successful and he stoically bears life after the demise of his beloved wife who as an artist was his main inspirer.

    This week,the drums are rolled out for a well deserving master of the visual arts, a consistent and devoted teacher, a creative guru, a role model of professional best practices and a legendary painter of rustic sceneries and figural elegance. We can only wish him more fruitful years ahead and pray that his creative spring never dries.

    Dr. Filani was the former Provost of the Federal College of Education, Abeokuta and President of the Culture and Creative Arts Forum (CCAF).

  • Emmanuel opens UNIUYO arts gallery

    Emmanuel opens UNIUYO arts gallery

    Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom has inaugurated an arts gallery in the University of Uyo in honour of his mother in-law, the late Professor Stella Idiong. Mrs. Idiong was the first female professor of Fine and Industrial Arts in the country, hence, the building of the arts gallery by her family to   showcase her works.

    The gallery was built ten years after her death as a memorial, to also promote art in the institution.

    Speaking at the Main Campus of the university, Emmanuel commended the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Enefiok Essien for allowing the sponsors of the gallery build the arts centre.

    He promised to connect the gallery to the national grid.

    He said: “I also want to thank you for the peace in the campus. Not all campuses are as peaceful as the University of Uyo. Whenever you see peace of this nature, it is leadership. Let me thank the members of this committee that put up the fine and international work here, the family, and everybody.

    “I thank the University community for giving us the space, the Vice Chancellor, Senate and the entire governing council of this university for this honour done to a great woman, who touched lives, who meant so much to a lot of people who are living and can still bears testimony to the quality of life that she lived.

    “In memory of the first ever female Professor of Fine and Industrial Arts in this country and the first ever female dean of the University of Uyo, Late Prof. Mrs Stella Idiong, I commission this Arts gallery to the glory of God the Father, and I pray this will serve as a resource centre for industrial arts, and people that will study here will make meaning into this country and into the continent at large.”

    Wife of the governor Mrs. Martha Emmanuel, who is also a daughter of the late professor, said the gallery was built to satisfy the desire of family members to immortalise the late Idiong, and promote the achievement of students in the university.

    She described her mother as “an artist, a great teacher who distinguished herself in a seemingly male dominated career; who also exhibited discipline and love in her motherly role to us and a pillar of support to her husband despite her academic attainment”, and appealed that the gallery be maintained.

    Continuing she said, “Today, on behalf of my siblings and family, we stand here to fulfill a longing in our hearts to immortalize our role model, our shining star, a one in a million mother by providing the University of Uyo the first of its kind Art gallery which I believe will support innovation, encourage exhibition by showcasing the achievement of students in the University.

    “It is my hope that this gallery will facilitate collaboration between the teachers and students. By establishing this arts gallery, we have established an enabling environment for the development of painting, sculpture as well as developing the graduates of this department for social and economic gains”.

  • Drive and focus? Ask the ants!

    A few years ago, I saw a programme on television featuring new inventions. The most intriguing to me was an alarm clock embedded in a rubber ball. The rationale was that people usually hated to be awoken by an alarm in the morning (though it was necessary) and would feel better if they could vent their anger. Hence, the only way to switch off the alarm was to grab the ball and throw it at a wall. You may think the alarm “ball” clock is a little weird but you will agree with me that an alarm is not the most exciting sound to hear in the morning.

    Some people hate to wake up early in the morning because they hate their jobs. Others don’t have enough challenges to be excited about. Yet, some are just plain lazy. Notwithstanding, the morning is the most precious part of the day because it lays the foundation for our accomplishments. Richard Whately puts it nicely thus, “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” You think losing an hour is not so bad? How about looking at the big picture? Philip Doddridge says, “The difference between rising at five and seven o’clock in the morning, for forty years, supposing a man goes to bed at the same hour at night, is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man’s life.” Ants are remarkably wise in this regard:

    • Ants start out early: they seem to realise the importance of beginning their day early. As human beings, the only worthy motivation to start our day early is if we have a goal that is worth pursuing. When we sleep excited, we wake up motivated. Waking ahead of others gives us the opportunity to plan our day without distraction. If we wait till everyone is awake, we will be too much in a hurry to do any quality thinking.
    • Ants are always in a hurry: have you ever noticed that ants always seem to be running? They run to find and transport food. A research report states that they have super-efficient running skills. After studying some ants a while ago, I concluded that their “attitude” was that of creatures who believed there wasn’t any time to waste. If we realise how much we can achieve in our lives and how little time we have to achieve it, we will maximise the time we have.
    • Ants have unbroken focus: focus is the ability to lock one’s attention on a single goal and pursue it without distraction. When you are focused, nothing else matters. Ants are creatures of focus. Their major goal is to get food and resources to the colony. If you place an obstacle before an ant, it will climb or go around it; but you can’t stop the ant. If you disturb a group of ants gathered around food and you leave the food unmoved, give them a few minutes and they would be back. Killing a few of them may not stop them either. You call them pests, I call them persistent. Imagine what greatness you can achieve if no obstacle or distraction can break your focus? Whatever you focus on grows.

    I look forward to reading your comments and stories of great successes. Share your views with me by sending SMS to 07034737394, visiting www.olanreamodu.com and following me on twitter @lanreamodu.

  • ANA condemns killings in Taraba, Zamfara, others

    The writer’s group, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has  condemned the killings in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Kaduna states, the Northcentral and the Southsouth geopolitical zones.

    Describing the nefarious acts as “callous” and crimes against the state, ANA said the  victims were mainly women and children, the elderly and the weak.

    The group called on the government to investigate these killings, and ensure that the perpetrators faced the law, saying this would not only serve as a deterrent to others.

    “ANA enjoins the security agencies to be up to date with the task and responsibilities associated with the protection of lives and properties in an increasingly challenging human environment.The association condemns and cautions against any unnecessary politicisation and ethnicisation of the country and enjoins political players at all levels to approach their activities (in view of the build-up to the 2019 elections) with utmost respect to the interest of the country and especially the sanctity of human life above all else,” it stated.

    The group made the call during its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at Grange Hill Hotel in Mpape, Federal Capital Territory.

    In the wake of brutal killings across the country, the group urged writers to use their writings to promote peace, harmony and mutual coexistence.

    Writers were urged to “continue to employ the instrumentality of their writings and creative endowments to promote peace, harmony and mutual coexistence in the country in line with our founding philosophy of supporting Nigeria’s emergence as an egalitarian society, safe for all and vibrantly accommodating of others opinions and noble pursuits”.

    At the NEC meetings, the group’s leadership restated its commitment to “purposeful administration”, pursuit and protection of the interest of all creative writers in the country in a continuing effort towards upholding the objectives, vision and mission of the association as outlined in its Constitution”.

    The Denja Abdullahi-led executive also reiterated its commitment to the development of the ANA Land at Mpape into a modern Writers Village and creative hub, which it said was witnessing progress in the form of the building; and completion of a mini-national secretariat and construction on various outlined facilities earmarked for the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village shall be sustained.

    The meeting also focused on the 37th International Annual Convention of the association, which has been scheduled for October 25 to 28. It would have as  theme: Literature: Megacities and mega-narratives.

    After exhaustive deliberations, it came up with a communique  signed by ANA president, Mallam Abdullahi, and ANA General Secretary, Dr. Ofonime Inyang, which also states, among other issues, that creative writing and literary production should begin to receive more attention from both the public and private sectors of the economy. In it, the group notes that the present exclusion of the literary sector from the government’s discourse and support projections for the creative industry, while calling for urgent redress on this to enable a wholesome development of the creative industry.

  • ‘My fears for Nigeria’

    ‘My fears for Nigeria’

    In June 2015, an art enthusiast, Prince Yemisi Shyllon,  signed an agreement with Pan Atlantic University, Lekki, Lagos to establish Nigeria’s first multi-billion naira privately-funded public museum. The founder of OmoobaYemisiAdedoyin Shyllon Arts Foundation (OYASAF) speaks with Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME on the progress of the museum, his fears for Nigeria, the vexed issues of open grazing and cattle colonies, among other issues.

    What is the update on your museum project at Pan Atlantic University?

    The work is going on gradually. If we have the boost like at first, it could be ready by the end of the year. In fact, the museum is fast coming up.

    Is the project getting bigger than you envisaged?

    No, it is not getting bigger but the fact is that nobody is ready to commit resources. The university went round looking for funds, nobody was interested. So, they had to run back to me and part of the money I committed to subsidise the sustenance of the museum for 15 years, is now being spent to complete the project. Then, of course, we will spread the balance on the 15 years.

    Will this change anything about the management of the museum?

    I don’t think so. When the museum is on ground and it gets cooperative and individual backing, it will attract international attention and grants. Even local private corporate bodies will take interest in the activities of the museum. The museum will also draw up activities and programmes that will attract sponsorship and supports. I don’t think there is any problem.

    What stands Pan AtlanticUniversity out to attract the museum project?

    It is because of their probity, transparency and track records. Pan Atlantic University is run by people who are very committed, with a strong religious bias at accounting for every kobo they get. Not only that, they also have a strong religious bias towards adding value to the society and to humanity. They have a track record. The university has been organising seminars on art, exhibitions for artists, sponsoring arts activities for years and it has a collection of its own.

    If you go to the Lagos Business School, which is the pioneer of Pan Atlantic University, you will see very interesting works of art and the varsity has made artists in Nigeria. So, their vision and mission agree with mine. That is why I chose them.

    Above all,I am sure that whatever I give them will be properly used for the benefit of humanity and will not end up being misapplied. That is why I am assured that my agreement with Pan Atlantic University will yield result, given the pedigree of the owners of the varsity. I have no doubt in my mind that my legacy will be sustained many years I am gone.

    Will fluctuations in foreign exchange rate and inflation take a toll on the project?

    No, we have found a way out of that.

     At the last quarter of 2017, it was a busy season in the creative sector courtesy of private sector operators. Was that a good omen?

    Yeah, it was a good omen. We are growing in our appreciation of the importance and value of creativity. Also, we are breaking the glass ceiling that religion has always imposed on appreciation of arts, mostly by Pentecostal churches.

    We are creating an industry that is multi-billionaire after bills that our country can benefit from. If you look at countries like France, which has the fifth largest GDP, it grows on arts and tourism. If you go to Singapore and Dubai today, they are talking about arts and tourism. If you go to the Caribbean their economy is based on tourism, arts and crafts. Brazil and Gambia are other examples. It’s a good omen because it is giving Nigeria food for thought and also a compass to look away from oil as a foreign exchange earner. It is creating employment because even most employers of labour in advanced world are into tourism. Only after tourism you talk of agriculture and construction.

    It is an avenue of engaging the minds of the youth and keeping them away from social vices. Also,it helps to constructively utilise the youths for the growth and development of the nation. That is the way I see it.

    In Nigeria, infrastructural support seems to be lacking though it would have been an added impetus. How about that?

    Infrastructural support or no infrastructural support, it doesn’t stop creativity. I have been to places in America that are worse than Ajegunle in Lagos, and I mean it. I have been to places in Detroit, US that are worse than Ajegunle. I have been to the jungle of Sun City in South Africa where I ate sitting on logs of wood and ate around bonfire. All those things you consider as impediment to growth are not. Creative minds work around it and they create something of unique value for city dwellers to go and experience what it is all about. So, don’t see lack of infrastructure as an impediment. It is even an impetus.

    I have been to a place called Baluata, it is a two-day cruise from Brisbane, Australia towards New Zealand. That place is divided into two. They live in deep jungle. Lots of bus and ship loads of visitors go there to see how they live. They live under the trees and they measure wealth in terms of big heads. They don’t use our kind of exchange or monetary value. They are predominantly hunters and fishermen. Visitors sit on wooden stems covered with banana leaves. They showed visitors how they preserve their foods in the ground, how they cure ailment with different kinds of leaves and they are led by the oldest man as their government is by age.

    You can create things out of nothing, that is why human beings are different from animals. When people talk of insecurity in Nigeria, I remind them that Johannesburg in South Africa is more dangerous than Lagos. Yet, South African makes 30 milion dollars from tourism. Even Israel, a very unstable environment, people visit there on pilgrimage.It is when you don’t want to do something that you begin to talk about all those challenges.

     Meaning we are just lazy mentally?

    Yes. In fact, I am worried about my country. Nigeria is still trying to reach the agrarian age when the world has left the agrarian age, Industrial Age and now in the Knowledge Age. The world is creating robots that will carry out operations in theatre wards of hospitals. Also, while the world is creating driver-less cars, we are battling with lack of petroleum products. Unfortunately, Nigeria is a petroleum producing nation.

    We need to sit and ask ourselves some basic questions because we are creating rooms for another level of slavery.

    Generations yet to come will be slaves if we do not get our acts together and forget our stupid tribalism and religiosity as against godliness, which are two different things.

    What is your view on Benue killings?

    My view about that all along has been that it is the product of lack of critical thinkers and committed movers and shakers in Nigeria. Everybody knows climate change is a problem. Scientists have been talking about it. Also, there have been talks about desertification, and the fact that the north is increasingly becoming a desert. Sadly,Nigeria has not deemed it fit to sit down and address this problem.

    It is either we change the breeds of cows that are raised or the mode of raising it in order to get maximum reform for every kilogram of grass. As the desert is encroaching, herdsmen are bringing their useless cows down south during dry season when there is no water or food for the cows. Instead of Nigeria to ask Israel how they practise agriculture in the desert, our leaders are busy stealing money, looting and consuming everything foreign. Sir Lord Lugard described Africans as a people of ‘give us today, we forget tomorrow’ and we are living true to type since 1926 when that man said that about Black Africans.

    Alternatively, we either change the cow breed or create grazing areas within the state that raise the cows. Cow breeding is a private business and it has nothing to do with government. There is no reason why herdsman will bring his cows to my town and in 500 years time,he begins to settle in there and claim to be part owners of the land.

    In fact, the grazing colony the Federal Government is planning to introduce should be resisted. People should put on their thinking cap and stop causing problems for the people.

    Nigeria is gradually becoming a curse to the black race. With our population and the volume of the senselessness of people, we are becoming a curse to the world and yet this country is blessed with brains.

    We have thinkers but they won’t be sought after. Everybody seems to have the answers without knowing anything.It is very sad.

     If on a personal level you encounter President Buhari one-on-one, what are the two  key ideas you will sell to him?

    The number one idea I will sell is education. We should invest in education and human capacity development. Human capacity development encompasses everything, artisans, vocational people, schooling and those who are not good at reading but are very good with their hands. These are people that have patented inventions but never went to university. Thomas Anderson is one of them. He registered 93 patents in his life time.

    My country needs to sit down and design policies that will help human capacity development. We need to take advantage of all the opportunities that exist and futuristic. We need to plan ahead to take advantage of it.

    I expect my country to be able to identify those who can think critically and lock them up like they do in some other countries of the world and ask them to give them ideas. If I were Buhari I would have some private and some public sector experienced and knowledgeable technocrats who will give me advice. He doesn’t have to pay a kobo, he only have to pay for the accommodation and feeding during consultation period and set up different thinkers like that on issues that affect this nation.

    In that way we will have solutions to our problem of power, and a lot of problems that are keeping us back for instance education.

    I know that some parts of this country are not endowed in terms of the quality and quantity of educationally advanced people. All he needs to do is to design programmes to bridge that gap, which Ahmadu Bello did by creating Schools of Basics Studies (SBS) and through SBS you can enter the university. Also, in the southwest poor people can work and still go to evening school to study and get degree. But, our degree programme must be result oriented and not just book work alone. They should aim at developing skills and human capacity.

    The second is that I will look at the problem of power.

    This is central to the development of this country and it is holding us back. Let us decentralise power in Nigeria, Federal Government should take its hands off and let private sector come and handle it. Let government enter powerfully designed agreement with the General Electric (GE)and many of these power generating giants to take sectorial allocation under well regulated and standardised agreement to develop power and integrate it. The Federal Government should stop holding on to it because it is dragging us back.

    But these are constitutional challenges?

    It’s a no problem. They have already held the constitutional conference. Let some people look at it and dust the recommendation and pass it through the various systems and change the constitution. This idea of running a government that does not listen and that seems to know it all and does not involve the citizens is wrong. Some select few are holding Nigeria’s growth, development and survival at the jugular. Let them let Nigeria breathe.

    Power and human capital development are the two things and the others will follow.Once you have power small scale industries will start springing up, companies will come here and manufacture.

    I ran a factory as an investor for more than a year using generators. You don’t run business like that.It is very expensive and it lowers the cost of production which eventually causes inflation that affects the value of the exchange. It affects transaction velocity in the economy and interest rate. They all have direct and inverse proportionality to the growth and development of any economy.

  • Loss of village: Artists decry unfulfilled promises

    Loss of village: Artists decry unfulfilled promises

    Two years after, the Minister of Information and Culture, Chief Lai Mohammed, is yet to fulfill his promise to compensate artists, whose studios and performance spaces, were illegally demolished.

    On Saturday, January 23, 2016 at about 6:00 am, the then National Theatre of Nigeria General Manager, Kabiru Yusuf YarAdua, invaded the National Council for Arts  and Culture (NCAC) Artists’ Village, which housed arts studios, workshops, dance studios and some service contractors with a bulldozer and two truckloads of armed policemen.

    The padlocks and chains used in locking the gates were broken and Kabiru entered the premises with his demolition squad. The noise generated by the forceful entry attracted the attention of residents who watched as Kabiru and his team, which included ‘thespians’, such as Stephen Ogundele and Biodun Abe, ordered the demolition of the arts and dance studios, galleries and restaurants servicing the community. Some of the demolished structures belonged to the NCAC while others built by artists had the approval of the NCAC.

    The NCAC is one of the parastatals in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and the NCAC Artists Village is one of her flagship projects. The NCAC law that established the Artists Village has turned out to be one of the best  in the industry.

    This is because it clearly demonstrates trickle down of government spending in the arts. This is critical because research grants, travel grants and support for New Work and productions from government have all but dried up.

    The resident arts practitioners, who represent some of the best in the culture scene had no prior notice of the exercise and our landlord, the NCAC, was not informed.

    Kabiru carried out his vindictive demolition without allowing the artistes and business owners the opportunity to salvage artworks and belongings and as a result caused extensive damage to property and valuables.

    A visual artist, Mr. Smart Ovwie, a sculptor, who arrived the scene later and saw the destruction of his properties, lamented to Kabiru, asking what he did to be oppressed this way. In response, the policemen harassed him and fired shots which sent bullets which hit Ovwie on the leg.

    It was truly tragic to see government officials who have statutory responsibility to promote and develop the arts and culture brutalising artists and destroying government property with impunity. It was, indeed, a clear manifestation of the misrule that Nigerians have been subjected to in recent years

    Later, the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, addressed the resident artists. He promised that the injured would get support for their treatment in hospital and that those who are legitimate residents would be duly compensated for damage done to their structures. The Minister confirmed that he asked Kabiru to demolish shanties at the back of the Artists’ Village along the canal that has been a route for miscreants and not Arts Studios and structures in the NCAC Artists’ Village. To date, the ‘Honourable’ Minister’s promise of compensation and rebuilding of the Artists’ Village to a world-class has not materialised.

    We wish to use this opportunity to thank Nigerian and international journalists, media organisations, Institutions and organisations in and beyond the culture sector, and the public for their invaluable support for our struggle to ensure that justice is done and that public trust is not abused with impunity by political office holders.

    On April 13, 2016, we received letter dated April 6, from the Minister (attached) in which he promised to pay N20 million as compensation on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Federal Government.

    He also made further promises relating to infrastructure and capacity building. We strongly believe that Buhari is an honourable man who will under no circumstances, allow innocent and hardworking Nigerians who promote our arts and culture to suffer. We, as members of Nigeria’s creative sector, find this situation appalling and feel it should be unacceptable to right thinking Nigerians.

    It is important to inform at this point that the Executive Committee of NCAC Artists’ Village Network, after due consideration and deliberation and after fruitless efforts to get the Minister to keep to his word, has engaged the services of the law firm of Momson, Solanke& Co Solicitors to represent the community in the matter.

    We are resolute in our commitment to the protection of the civil and human rights of our members who have been working in the rain and sun for two years now due to the insensitivity of a government that has failed to recognise their invaluable contribution to the development of national culture.

     

    • Agubom (Kurious K) is Deputy Coordinator, Artists’ Village Network, NCAC Artists’ Village, Lagos.
  • Ooni, NTDC back TIDA conference

    Ooni, NTDC back TIDA conference

    All is set for the Tourism Innovation and Development Advantage (TIDA) Conference planned by Skyview Communications Company Limited.

    As part of its awareness campaign, the organising partners visited the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi.

    During the visit at the Ooni’s palace in Ile-Ife, the monarch gave his blessings to the conference, billed for February 15, at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.

    He reiterated his interest in the growth of domestic tourism and the preservation of the nation’s rich heritage, which he has consistently championed since he was crowned in December 2015.

    According to him,  improved local tourism will benefit the people and the society. “I support TIDA initiatives and its twin projects – Virtual Tourism and the Tourism Entrepreneurship Development Academy (TEDA) –that will be unveiled at the conference. It is a step in the right direction,” he said.

    The country’s top federal promotion and regulatory body, the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), has also thrown its weight behind the conference. According to a letter of endorsement, signed by Funebi Out-Umondak on behalf of the corporation’s Director-General, Folorunsho Coker, “TIDA will help re-direct the negative perception about the country and present Nigeria as a viable tourism destination.

    ‘’The corporation believes that using virtual tourism to promote tourism would captivate the minds of would-be tourists to the vast tourism potential of the country.”

    With the aim of tapping into the  tourism industry, Skyview Communications Company is partnering other organisations to hoist the  conference, its CEO, Femi Lawson, said.

    He observed that his company is partnering stakeholders, such as Travelnet Log, Avant Garde Tours, and Nigeria Tourism Awards, to develop the tourism potential of Nigeria.

    Earlier, at a briefing on the  conference,  Lawson said a virtual tourism on the country would be unveiled at the TIDA.

    Besides, he said his firm would also introduce the Tourism Entrepreneur Development Academy  (TEDA).

    One of the partners, Pelu Awofeso, of Travelnet log, urged that instead of promoting insecurities that are not the major reality in Nigeria, we could, with the help of our rich culture, project a better image of the country, especially since every country has its own share of insecurity.

  • Water colour re-emerges at Content’s spring show

    Water colour re-emerges at Content’s spring show

    After a successful outing with its harmattan edition last year, Adam and Eve, a top-flight luxury gift shop on Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos will host its spring’s edition of Content, a group art exhibition, featuring seven Nigeria’s water colourists.

    The group exhibition, which will feature artists such as Lekan Onabanjo (curator), Sam Ovraiti, Tayo Adenaike, Olu Ajayi, Kehinde Sanwo, Victor Obasuyi and Ini Brown, will open on April 1 till 30.

    Curator of the show, Onabanjo, said the two editions are part of preparations towards the formal opening of Content Art Gallery, located within the same building with Adam & Eve.

    He stated that the choice of water colour as medium for the spring edition was informed by the realisation that the medium is fast becoming very unpopular amongst artists, especially the young ones. He added that it is to re-engineer artists’ interest in the medium as well as to appreciate art on the mainland. According to him, 98 per cent of art galleries are on the Island while the artists producing the works are mostly on the Mainland.

    “We live on the Mainland, why can’t we show our works here too instead of going to the Island,” he added.

    Onabanjo assured that many collectors were eager to see water colour paintings, saying medium has nothing to do with collecting and collectors. To him, the show is coming at a time of need.

    Ovraiti described the medium as one of the finest yet most difficult for artists to manage, noting that it makes water colour to lose the food it provides. Art, he said, is food for the mind.

    He explained that the state of the  economy and commerce affected the popularity of water colour, especially in terms of sourcing materials, which cannot be improvised.

    “By nature, any mistake during production of water colour painting condemns the paper,” he said.

    He however noted that some collectors find it convenient to spend huge money on large paintings on canvas than mediums such as water colour.

    Ovraiti observed that water colour requires some level of technique because the paper comes in grammage, which determines handling.

    “My regret as water colour artist is that 90 percent of my works are outside Nigeria,” he said.

    Each artist is expected to feature eight paintings for the exhibition, which promises lots of surprises.

  • Still waters, Kaizen

    Still waters, Kaizen

    Recent Nigerian memoirs that aren’t at the same time hackneyed hagiographies are very hard to come by indeed.

    The pleasure of encountering Little Birds and Ordinary People, a work straddling the nexus between the written meditation and the compte rendu was therefore a welcome relief from the monuments of literary dross littering the landscape much like what passes, for the most part, for contemporary Nigerian architecture or legal practice or broadcasting.

    There is a high-mindedness to this book which separates it from the muster of tired resolve to ‘write a book’ at the end of active careers – the apparent motivation for most of these other painful texts in the market. There is, also, a certain grit to the telling of this fardel of many stories that gives fresh perspectives to the reader regarding the intractable problems of Nigeria, the Niger Delta and the oil and gas industry. Many of the accounts, for those who have known Nigeria long enough, provide cues and clues to the massive jigsaw puzzle that is the political economy of Africa’s most populous country. For this reader, it was a view from the boiler room, a tour through the steam and grime that propels the ship of state.

    The pace of the writing, the reader is warned early, is leisurely – though the book itself touches on the most serious of subjects. This is a book to take with you to the bank of a placid lake or a gentle running stream, a book to read in the early morning sun or in the cool of the evening under an umbrella or a shade tree. This is a book to read against a backdrop of birdsong and not the busy twittering (of the electronic variety) and hum offices. If the other contexts I would prefer cannot be readily afforded, it is a book that will serve as a bedside reading. It is tempting to say this book is a temptation to the bourgeois repose in reading, but, it is also clear that the mind that wrote the book isn’t of the materialistic bent.

    Yet there is a tenderness to the telling of Mr. Haastrup’s stories, a degree of emotional intelligence necessary to get through to an audience in two minds about what the oil and gas industry has done in Nigeria. This is a strength of the book but also a weakness. At times, the work reads like an audi alteram partem brief for the demonized oil and gas industry. A compromise this reviewer worked out is to see this book as an oriel into realities we may not ordinarily access except through specialist documents of no aesthetic value whatsoever.

    The main strength of the book, in my view, is the vast canvass of history it erects and the complex nature of the society it portrays. Artists say it all boils down to perspective. From the plastic arts to the literary arts, the inherent value in the work is in its power to persuade the audience to see things from new points of view.

    Yet this book works as mimesis as well, the language is beautiful and efficient, and most importantly, it rings true. It may not so ring to the African born in the eighties and afterwards, who have only known the chaos and the brutish (in overall abundance) when it comes to Nigeria. Haastrup doesn’t so much conjure as he resurrects a Nigeria that was, at some earlier point in the 20th century, a place for all peoples, a veritable melting pot, a balanced mix of the rustic and the urbane. That Nigeria, that Ibadan, was the place that led other places in terms of cultural output, announcing the pioneering talents of J.P Clark, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Dennis Brutus, Duro Ladipo, Demas Nwoko and Es’kia Mphahlele among others, to the world

    Like his grandfather before him, the author eventually chooses the urbane. It may be argued that the Ibadan which provided the ambience for the author’s formative years cannot be properly defined as a village. However, considering that Ibadan is roughly the same age as Toronto, for instance, it isn’t so far-fetched to argue, as the author does, that the densely populated conurbation keeps a leg in the past as it does a leg in the present.

    Little Birds and Ordinary People goes further than the past and present, venturing and even stravaging,  into the future. With very deft shifting of the gears, the author even convinces the reader to see the journey not in linear terms but as a gyre. This, in my opinion, is when the author is at his most mystical and African. The great thing, though, is the conviction in the writing that the journey can be improved, that the cycle isn’t a closed one, that there can be what the Japanese call Kaizen.

    Away from the preoccupation with work and career, the book, dedicated to the memory of the author’s brother, AdesinaHaastrup, works at an even deeper emotional substratum as a memorial and as a celebration of life and not of loss. They say we are truly gone when the last human mentions our name. Deji Haastrup has erected a more lasting monument than marble to his late brother in this regard, this book will be read as long as humankind is literate. It is an impetus that works through the warp and woof of the writing, transmuting into the author’s hope and vision for country and continent. We have come so far as individuals, as siblings, as families, moieties, clans, nations and as continent but always we have a choice to make. We can choose better for self and community.

    Without fishing for a hook, the account in Little Birds and Ordinary People finds one nonetheless in its deliberately understated case for the better half of humankind, the women. I’m tempted to read women into the Ordinary People in the title of the book. Through most of human history the women have borne the brunt and the species as a whole as suffered for the obtuse choice by men in the status quo. I personally wish the author wasn’t as sophisticated in his arguments for womankind in this book although I’m persuaded that close readers will see very clearly what the mind at work is about. History shouldn’t be read as his story alone, the author seems to argue, it is her story as well. The hand that rocks the cradle, we know, rules the world. A way to imagine what the author envisions is to put the tableaux of the entire saga of the Niger Delta against the backdrop of a better educated, better respected and better rewarded working women. The world would be a better place. The task is to move beyond potential into actuality.

    The hamlet-dweller in this reader cannot but marvel at the worlds within the covers of Little Birds and Ordinary People. I am persuaded that the city dweller will profit as much from reading the book as the hermit. It is more than gratifying to note that the author, though a citizen of the world now, first had his world shaped in Ibadan. It is even more gratifying that the prose in the book (and the cameo appearance of poetry) all add up to a thoroughly enlightening if a little frightening read.

  • Power show opens at Omenka Art Gallery

    A solo exhibition, Power Show, featuring multimedia works by Ayo Akinwande will open on Saturday, February 3 and run till the February 21, at Omenka Art Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    The show, which will be curated by Erin M. Rice, is the third solo show by Akinwande. It will examine the nuances of the word power in the context of Nigeria where electrical power cuts are a daily occurrence and fuel shortages are common even as the nation is rich in oil.

    Inspired by Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s song of the same title, the show also examines power in the sense of authority and its corruptibility, especially where these multiple forms of power overlap.The irony is not lost on anyone living in Nigeria without power amidst the humming of generators that the nation is the largest producer of oil in Africa. It may seem even redundant to address an issue so entrenched in daily life in the context of art.

    But for Akinwande, the issue is precisely this entrenchment and the complacency that comes when having no power or waiting in long lines for fuel is so commonplace that it is no longer a source of anger. Rather when power comes back, it becomes a moment to praise “NEPA”, the nation’s energy provider.

    Akinwande seeks to channel both the frustration and the ordinariness of this situation.The works presented in Power Show span multiple media and subjects to use the familiarity of found objects, such as the blue generator tanks and the NEPA bill, to expose the ways that a lack of (electrical or gas) power and powerlessness go hand in hand.

    Works, such as The Shrine, evoke the way that power outages have become so entrenched in life in the city of Lagos and Nigeria at large, that recent architecture factors the presence and constant humming of generators into its design. As the rich find ways to cope with generators and inverters that they have the financial resources to keep running continually, the work serves as a reminder that when the lights go out it is most detrimental to Nigerians who are already vulnerable, who may use chains and cages and other means to protect their source of energy, creating, in effect, a shrine.

    Power Show represents a pivotal turn in the early career of Akinwande and the fruits of an intensively experimental and creative 18 months. In mid-2016, Akinwande made the decision to branch out from the medium of photography in which he was working exclusively at the time. This decision came as a result of his participation in the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos’ residency programme titled: Asiko, which took place in June-July 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Encouraged by Asiko faculty to push the concept of the ‘Fuel Scarcity’ photographic series in a new material direction, Akinwande returned to Lagos with new ideas, and the motivation to experiment in forms from performance, installation, and sound.Inspired by precedents in the Lagos art world, namely, the State of the Nation exhibition by Ndidi Dike (2013), Victor Ehikhamenor’s Wealth of Nation (2015), Uche James-IrohaPowers and Power (2014), and the politically charged performances of Jelili Atiku, Akinwande’s new work is both indebted to these influences and marked by his own experiences and his unique perspective on the Nigerian condition.

    Akinwande is an architect, photographer and multimedia artist, whose growing practice, involves experimentation with photography, installation, performance, video and sound in exploring the concepts of identity, perception, duality and the multi-faceted layers of the human reality. His most recent work, a site-specific installation piece with sculptures and sound titled: “Deaf vs. Dumb” takes its point of entry from the unending “Fight against Corruption” campaign by the Nigerian government.

    Akinwande co-curated the first Lagos Biennial of Contemporary Arts. He was also one of the participating artists at the show, which held at the Nigerian Railway Museum.

    He was selected for the second Changjiang International Photography and Video Biennial and was also part of the Chinafrika-under construction exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Leipzig.