Uzoma Samuel Anyanwu is a specialist in fabric collage art. As he is engaged in a solo exhibition in Lagos at the moment, his attention is focused on fabrications, not only as it forms the title of his works, but as he tries to pay tributes to his mentors and more, Edozie Udeze reports.
Fabrications did not come to the visual art community in Nigeria as a surprise. Uzoma Samuel Anyanwu has always been an artist who believes in making his ideas known. As he engages in a solo exhibition at the Thought Pyramid Gallery, Lagos, what is clear is that Anyanwu is different. He is different because like he rightly pointed out, “I am, first and foremost, attracted to pieces of clothes. My mother was a tailor and I grew up being accustomed to pieces of clothes” he said.
With the title of his exhibition as Fabrications, Anyanwu’s show consists of vibrant and expressive fabric collages. These indeed confirm him as an expert in this medium. By sewing pieces of clothes together, Anyanwu produces an array of amazing art works very peculiar to him. He has often reiterated the fact that his background coupled with his years of apprenticeship to a senior artist, George Edozie, helped to sharpen his love for this medium. So fabrication is a metaphor both to pay tributes to his mentors in the art and to also trace his genesis from the moment when he was born.
”Sometimes mother would assign me to sweep her shop. I would throw the pieces of clothes away quite alright. But then, I’d go back to pack them and play with them. This way, my love for the art kept growing without even me knowing it”, he explained. Then using pieces of clothes he began to cut them. Thereafter he would again pierce them together to form beautiful works of art. This was how it began for him that when the time came he went straight to the University of Part Harcourt, Rivers State, to study Fine and Applied Arts.
As a grown artist, Anyanwu characteristically paints with clothes. He cuts and weaves them around his works in such a way that he clearly has a recognizable signature. “Yes, I source the pieces of clothes from local tailors. Sometimes too, I pay some people to supply me. For me, it is a way of recycling waste to art and wealth” he said.
And so today, his art concentrates more on this special medium. It is known as fabric collage. This is indeed rich in assortments of colours basically sourced from fabrics. Also, he paints oil on canvas, acrylic and others, yet he is best known for his works that define his unique love for what is different.
“Yes, as an artist, one needs to be conversant with all sorts of mediums”, he says. “This is what gives me enough room for unlimited expressions”. This way, he uses these to tell stories; stories of his people, of his growing up years in Owerri and Port Harcourt. These stories concern the many different life styles of people cutting across age, class and creed. “Yes, the story we tell is peculiar to us, to our environment, to our people. The history that influences us as artists here in Nigeria remain peculiar to us. And these can be seen in the works of many true Nigerian artists”, Anyanwu proffered, explaining that his exhibition is a means to explore completely the place of discarded materials in the social life of recycled arts.
So when an artist brings pieces of clothes from here and there, he tends to fabricate them. The clothes give class to an art work. Anyanwu therefore feels more at home. When these come out to fully give beauty to his medium, he feels good and fulfilled. He also tries to fit into an artist who loves the environment. He can then be regarded as an environmentalist artist. Even as his works pay tributes to those who influenced him, he did not entirely deviate from that fact that collage medium is his for keeps. This was why he attended Government Craft Development Centre Collage, Port Harcourt at a point in order to hone his art. The school opened his total understanding of the basic concepts of drawings. There he did a bit of welding and engineering but his love for the art kept him afloat. “I’d go to the department of Fine Arts to watch them do their thing”, he enthused. “But when I got to the university I decided to go straight to Fine Arts. It is there that my heart is and will always be”, he confessed.
Also, as a photographer, Anyanwu loves to do much more than that. In 2011 he attended the famous Bamako Biennial photo exhibition/festival. The exchange of ideas there have further expanded his world view on photography and more. In the main these have taken him to different parts of the world where he always exhibited and displayed his kind of art.