Tag: Terra Kulture

Where did she get the strength and energy to carve such magnificent works? Why chose to be a sculptor, a rather back-bending career? These are few questions that will run through your mind when you encounter the works of Veronica Otigbo-Ekpei.

Otigbo-Ekpei is a perfect example of “what a man can do, a woman can do even better.”  Like many artists who use various media to tell stories and express themselves, she is a female sculptor, who chose to express herself through wood.

Her upcoming exhibition with a theme: Echoes from the wood, an exhibition of sculptures and button art that document her views, feelings and thoughts about life will hold at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos beginning from August 24 and 30. ‘The exhibition is an attempt to share the thoughts in wood, what has become my voice and language that are clearly translated through my sculpture works’, she said at a preview session recently.

From the wood, Otigbo-Ekpei has been able to achieve inward view by balancing a realistic sculpture technique with addition of symbolic allegorical elements. Her works can be seen as a form of visual storytelling, with each work suggesting a narrative and emotional quality.

One of her works, which will be on display at the exhibition, Broken Dream portrays her view on the controversial issue of Child Bride in Nigeria. ‘My works speak volumes about my thoughts and feelings from the sketches and the finishing work’, she added.

She will be exhibiting works which are in three categories, the first category consist of works such as Out of Waste, Something Beautiful, which are in series. According to her, ‘these are woods with natural formation that I saved from burning to ashes following the outcry by the wood. I painted the wood with acrylic paint to breathe life into it, to show that out of waste, something beautiful can be achieved’. This, she said, aims at supporting the ongoing global campaign against deforestation and bush-burning.

The second category of sculpture on display is carved  out of different kinds of wood. They include Fisherman, Drummer, Musician and Shoemaker which represent the doggedness, tenacity, resilience and survival spirit of the real Nigerians who work so hard, but have little or nothing to show for it.

But for African Lady, Flower, Sunset, Dripping Colour, Teenage and lot more are created out of trial. ‘Each time I visit the market where I purchase materials for my sculptures, I found lots of bright-coloured buttons staring at me in the face, and I could not resist the temptation of making experiment with them.

‘The buttons are of diverse colours, shapes and sizes; they are made of plastic, glass, metal, clay and rain. I use them to transform a plain surface, to an original work of art using adhesive to fasten them together’.

According to her, ‘the world of the woods, a world offering perfect quiet and solitude, exists side by side with the realisation that there is also another world of people and society’s obligations. They try to reach-out, to speak to us and sometimes even make suggestions, but are not heard because they speak with their mystifying whispers through sound wave and chemical reaction.

‘The unseen forces in the wood are yearning for attention, incidentally and on five years interval are inching to express themselves through my works.

However, Otigbo-Ekpei has been an active force in this male dominated field of contemporary Nigerian art.  She has been practising and creating amazing works for twenty years. This conveys that she does what she is doing not just for storytelling or to express herself alone but due to her passion for art and sculpture.

“It gives me joy and satisfaction seeing wood in its rough and shapeless form being transformed into an unbelievable object of communication”, she said, adding that it is what keeps her practicing.

She has held five solo exhibitions, ten group exhibitions, and seven commissioned works, calendar illustrations, including books, which she authored.

Otigbo-Ekpei is a 2005 masters degree holder (Sculpture), from the University of Lagos.

An exhibition of drawings, paintings and mixed media by Tunde Olaifa will open on Saturday at the Terra Kulture Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos. The exhibition tagged:Out of the box will feature about 40 art works.

The exhibition, which will run till July 11 is his third solo show since his last outing in 2008.

When asked why the gap, he said: “I cannot exhibit every year because of my job as an art educator at Whitesands School, so it’s a long plan, having to on my painting gradually in order to maintain good quality standard.”

He said a discussion with his friends while going through a trying period prompted him into this visual statement out of the box.

“He was blaming people around him for the problems he was going through, not wanting to be responsible for his own actions. I advised him using different illustrations, after this the idea of staging an exhibition based on suggesting to people to press forward came telling them to get of the box, think more to solve problems as there is a seed deposited in everyone to be successful in life,” he said. Some of his works include Out of the box 1&2, Vanity, Its in you, Iwogbe(mirror), Boko boko.

One of his works, Out of the box was illustrated with a pool, shallow and deep area. He likened the shallow area to the popular area in which no one wants to dare nor cross. He said he realised that it took God the whole space to be able to create a beautiful earth. He also likened the pool to the entire world that a lot of people just want to sit down at their comfort zone which is clustered. To him, the deep area may be dangerous, as there is a line in the pool that tells you not to cross. Some use the shallow area to train themselves to cross, while some never bothered. The line in the art work is designed with various colours such as red, green, purple, white. Some of these colours signify that if you cross you’ll have peace. But the red signifies that it could be dangerous because you have to remain afloat.

The painting depicts the essence of hard work. “If you’re doing well and you dont want to go down and to remain afloat, you really have to keep working hard”. He also gave an insight on Iwogbe, which is a mixed media painting in segments. The meaning of Iwogbe is mirror and the painting is asking the question Who are You? At the middle of the painting there is a mirror which signifies an appeal to your conscience when you look at it. The eye signifies that a lot of people are looking at you so also God is looking at you. The hand prints in different colours (red&blue) signify the work of one’s hand. The human faces in different colours illustrates that there are various ways in people would look at you. The foot prints illustrates where you go.

Vanity is a painting in segment put in blocks illustrating that everything about us are in stages starting from the conception period where you have no clue about what is going to happen. The colours used explain the art work. The purple colour in this painting explains that ‘we are all hopeful human beings and as time goes on, we face various problems’. The green illustrates prosperity that though some make it but somewhere along the line, we face dangerous situations, there are also happy moments. There’s also human figures droppings and some things on the fall; this signifies that at the end of the day, we are going to drop it all. White here signifies vanity.

Another of his works, Its In You, is a mixed media work with the human head showing objects such as padlock, key, buckle etc. It’s a work that will help one get motivated, sit down, buckle up, unlock the brain and think wise.

According to him, works produced for this exhibition is tagged motivational art. ‘Artists usually claim that they are influenced by the environment, aside from the physical environment and people.’ What about those very close to us? How do we motivate them? There are lot of people living close to us that are facing various problems. “Out of the box is to motivate people to keep pressing forward, and for people not to blame people around them for their predicament” he added. “I am out to ameliorate people’s predicament in visual forms.”