Susan Wenger gave me greatest inspiration
In her early years, Nike Okundaye was a stage dancer, she later became an actress featuring as a lead actress in a local Yoruba film titled, ‘Ayaba’, and has participated in many documentary films like ‘Kindred spirits’ produced by the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. In this encounter with Edozie Udeze, last week at her gallery located in Lekki, Lagos, the rare international icon in art takes you into her world, passion and more.
Who or what inspires you to do most of your creative works?
It was my parents. I was born into the art. The art of creativity in me is inborn. And my parents were all artists. In fact, I am the 5th generation of artists from my direct family. I come from Ogidi Ijumu, in Kogi State. My great-great grand parents were professional dyers and my great-grand mother was a weaver, one of the foremost in her time. And then my mother herself; she was so much into embroidery and weaving and so on. She also did much of the painting of adire.
So then, that was how they passed education onto the children. And so I was able to learn directly from my parents. This was so in my own case. The first education I knew and learnt was how to do what my parents did so well. And when I discovered that there was no money for me to go to school, I had no choice but to do what my parents did for a living. That was how I focused on what my parents passed on to me. I get inspired from time to time from what I learnt from them and from what ideas I get from the profession itself. The art, for me, is life as you can see.
How do you feel now when people call you Mama Adire?
I feel good indeed. It is something that makes me feel that we can pass this knowledge on to the younger generation. Mama Adire shows that people appreciate me and what I do to create adire and make it known to the whole world. The younger generations are also getting interested in adire-making. So, when they call me Mama Adire, it makes me feel good. I am the Mama Adire of Nigeria; indeed, Mama Adire of the whole of Africa.
You mentor a lot of people. How do you feel when you see those you’ve mentored grow into big artists?
It is my own achievement; the big joy in my heart when I see my artists making it in the world. When they have grown and are able to rent or build their own houses and do well in life. Honestly, I feel so good in my heart. That is what I love; seeing people grow and doing well in life. Giving people knowledge is part of what I love to do always. And it is good when you have your craft, when you have a profession no one can take away from you.
Often, they have no choice, because they see how I work; how I woke up, how I am committed to the art. From there, they sit up, they fall into place. They get inspiration from my attitude to work. Of course, those of them who want to grow can then package themselves very well and take off from there. This is how many of them have become big in life.
What does fashion mean to you?
Ha! Fashion is life. Without fashion, you are nobody. The closest thing to your skin, to your body, is fashion. You feel it, you live it and you touch it. You live with it for the rest of your life. It is part of your skin day-in-day-out. People are my fabric and so when they say a man and a woman should love each other, the first thing that comes to your skin is your fabric. Love your woman. You love your woman like your fabric because you also wear your clothes and cherish them.
So, that is why fashion is very, very powerful. It is part of life; and you cannot do without it. It is like what connects people to one another. In those days, women talked more with their fabrics; the type of clothes they wore. That’s why fashion is not ordinary fashion. It is indeed wearable art. If you show or wear your own clothe and I wear mine, that is art, that’s fashion. You wear to suit you, so do I. Then, when all of us put them on, they all become wearable art. Your design is different from mine and so on. This is not ordinary then. It is then called wearable art and that is the height of artistic design in fashion.
In other words, if you are not wearing adire, what else do you wear?
Me? (laughs). How can I? I do not wear anything other than adire. I don’t wear anything else. I have to wear my creativity. That is what made me who I am today, not only in Nigeria but world-over. Adire is my concept: it is my belief, it is my style; indeed everything. I live, I dream, I eat, I sleep, I wake up, I do everything all for the sake of adire. It is the total me. I do everything within adire, for it soothes my satisfaction to do so.
Who is the greatest influence in your life and why?
Ah, ah, Susan Wenger, Iya Orisha, Mama Susan, also known as Georgina Beier. She is the artist, Beier is the writer. When she became Susan Wenger, everything about her changed. She is a great artist in a way no one can equal her creativity. Her husband, Ulli Beier, was also a writer. But Mama was a committed painter, a wonderful artist. Baba Ulli wrote about the art while Mama faced her work as a painter. But together both of them contributed immensely to the growth of the art. She gave me the greatest inspiration and influenced me greatly to be where I am today.
What happened to Susan Wenger was what happened to me too. She divorced her husband and married a drummer. Susan was a white woman married to a drummer, a black man. I got married to a white man who was a water producer. His name is John Davies. But my husband now is a retired Commissioner of Police, a black man. He was the first Commissioner of Police in Osun State. Before he married me, I didn’t know he was already used to my fabrics. That was so interesting. He is not only an art lover; he is also an art collector.
So, what does family life mean to you?
Emh, I value my family. I love them all. What I do is that I divide my time into three. One for my family, second one for my work and the third one for my Centres. You know, I have Centres where I mentor people; where I groom young artists. But for my family time, I wake up 5 a.m every day. I have to prepare breakfast for my family. I prepare breakfast for my husband and then do the lunch food he will eat later in the day. My hubby doesn’t eat outside. He doesn’t like eating outside, so I prepare his meals before I leave home.
So, my family includes others I like to share my time with. These are the workers and everyone gets enough attention from me. I am a good cook; indeed I love cooking.
What is your favourite food?
Well garnished local Yoruba vegetable is my best food. Mama Susan also loved it. This is what gives me the best flavour.
Of all the art works in your gallery, which of them do you cherish most?
Papa Bruce’s works. Oh, Bruce Onobrakpeya who is 84 years old and still works with the same dexterity; the same energy and vitality.
He is our father in the art. He is one of the human living treasures of the moment. We pray that he lives long for us. So, his works mean a lot to me. Then I have others too. But I also value my own works. In fact, all the artists in my gallery have great works which I cherish a great deal.
And you will see most of these works next week when they will be displayed. This is so because I am going to be 65 and there will be big celebrations for me by the art community in Nigeria and beyond. So, I will be exhibiting my works starting from the 21st of this month of May. The first day will be with members of the diplomatic corps. Second day will be with kings. Then the third day will be with all the artists both far and near.
What is the most memorable event in your career?
The day I opened this gallery. It was the most memorable day in my life because I give thanks to God, that in my own life time a gallery of this magnitude is open to the public. I have been able to achieve this for all the artists in Nigeria and Africa. It is for all artists to have a place and a voice. The day I opened this place, I knew it would be for all artists.
So far, how many students have you trained on scholarship in all the Centres you have?
Well, the Osogbo Centre has trained thousands of people. It began in the 1970s. The training is both for the old and the young and cuts across gender. People from different cultures also come for training. As at today, we have people from tertiary institutions too who come to receive training. This has to do with skills acquisition which they require to be able to do good and quality adire.
We have instructors and the teachers and the materials to teach them how to do this. Over there in Osogbo and here in Lagos and even in Abuja, I have plenty students who are ready to learn. I also instruct and advise people on how to run their homes. Once I see you, I can determine over twenty ways you can be useful and I will instruct you or advise you based on that. It is God’s gift and I cherish it.
So, how do you relax?
Oh, you see, I relax with my art; with my work. There is no other way to do it. When I am working is when I am relaxing. That has been my best way of relaxation.
Tell us about your favourite holiday destination.
Nigeria. I love Nigeria a lot. I like it here in the country. I only go to my village, Ogidi, in Kogi State. There is peace there.
Often, I go to the mountain. There is also peace there in the mountains. There is this village festival held every year in my village. It is also time to go on holidays to the village. That festival is time for all of us to visit home. And it has been good all along.
