Yaro fuses Nigeria and Spain in fashion
Contemporary dancer and multidisciplinary performer, Okwui Okpokwasili has won N98.7 million ($275,000) from the 2018 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Artist Award. The award is designed to invest in exemplary individual artistes in contemporary dance, jazz, theatre and related interdisciplinary work who have demonstrated their artistic vitality and ongoing commitment to their field.
Okpokwasili, who won the award for her continued contribution to contemporary dance, will along with six other awardees - Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter and Stefon Harris for their continuing contributions to jazz; Michelle Dorrance for contemporary dance, and Muriel Miguel and Rosalba Rolón for theatre - receive N89.7million ($250,000) in flexible funding, and an additional Abuja-based lawyer, Yambawo Yaro is the 2018 winner of the Fashion Illustration Competition organised by the Embassy of Spain, Abuja for successfully fusing elements unique to the Western European country and Nigeria.
Yaro’s entry won having met the criteria of the competition including aesthetic and technical quality, its identification with the Spanish culture and its adaptability to a piece of cloth. The jury particularly valued the choice of colours, the balance among the different elements of the design and its insightful approach.
In his speech the Spanish Ambassador, H.E. Marcelino Cabanas Ansorena, said, the competition was aimed at promoting the fashion and the textile industries but at the same time at embracing our two cultures. “Indeed, Ms. N8.9million ($25,000) to encourage contributions to retirement savings.
The Igbo artiste, raised in the Bronx, is a seminal figure in the experimental dance scene in New York and has given her audiences raw, intimate experiences, through her creation of multidisciplinary performances intersecting at theatre, dance and installation art.
She is reputable for her one-woman performances, and has addressed topics like gender, politics and identity. She has staged site specific shows like her 2017 performance at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in response to Nick Cave’s massive installation art, ‘Until.’
Okpokwasili collaborated with her husband, Peter Born, on the project “Poor People’s TV Room,” a multi-disciplinary performance piece investigating the tradition of women’s collective action in Nigeria including the Bring Back Our Girls movement and the 1929 Aba Women’s Yambawo’s design, winner of the competition, depicts part of our culture from a Nigerian perspective and we have the opportunity tonight to see it printed on textile by the Abuja Textile Manufacturers in Kano,” he said.
He added that, “booming within the creative industries market in Nigeria and I am sure that with the talented designers the country has, it will soon raise up to a level that will be able to impact on the overall Nigerian economy.”
Yaro said, the concept of her work is an expression of what Spain is popularly known for - bullfighting.
She said, although the human and animal contest has faced a lot of criticism while trying to stay relevant in modern times, the bull represents the strength of Spain. “Behind the bull is an outline of the Spanish fan mostly used by women to keep cool in the heat, which also Riots.
In a short film released on Tuesday, the Foundation’s president and CEO, Edward P. Henry who was joined by previous winners, to announce this year’s recipients, said, “we recognize that the arts also are critically important to our communities. And at the heart of the arts is the individual artist. This award frees artists to be artists by providing them with the financial security to take risks and to make great work.”
A 2012 awardee, Eiko Otake, told the new recipients, “This is not a prize for you for what you have done. This is an investment for what you will do.”
The artiste is a multiple recipient of the Bessie Awards, including one in 2014 for the production of ‘Bronx Gothic.’ She is also a 2018 awardee of the United States Artists Award and a 2016 Herb Alpert Award in Dance and has been commissioned for the 2018 Berlin Biennale, among other recognitions. serves as a form of communication.”
Inspired by the beauty and variety of Spain, the lines, circles and colours are a representation of her diversity from the Flamenco dance, to the food and numerous festivals celebrated year round that the people partake in. They do so because it would be un-Spanish not to.
With the red carnation that blossoms all year surviving harsh summers, this national flower in the design beautifies the flamenco dancer’s hair, Spanish homes and landscapes, thereby symbolising the passion Spanish people resonate, which is equally seen with Nigerians. In sharing this passion, the two cultures share similar values towards the zest of life that is living in every moment.
Yaro is an art enthusiast with a love for fashion and design and spends her spare time drawing. Twenty three years after launching Women’s Surrender, (1995) Hajiya Amina Abdulmalik Giwa, has launched another book, ‘Wasted Generation,’ which she wrote in 1998.
At the ceremony which held in Abuja on Thursday, chairman of the occasion, Sam Nda Isaiah spoke of the “embarrassingly low” reading culture in Nigeria and that the book is one the author should be proud of.
While congratulating the author, Isaiah said, “If you are a writer, you will appreciate what she has done. The book is well written, well thought out. Writing fiction is more serious than any other writing.”
He advised that the book be registered with Nigerian Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) so that our young ones in secondary schools can have access to it.
He said, “Young people can see from the book that there is another way instead of a short cut approach. The book is a valuable contribution to the growth of our society.”
The book reviewer, Lara Olugbemi, said the book is relevant today despite being written over 20 years ago.
She said, “What this book brings is that Hanafi realized that we can use our privileged positions and resources to make that change we deserve. It’s not a bad thing if we use it in serving and helping others.
“The very strong point of this story is to witness change in this country, we need to look inwards because we don’t know where we’re headed. We have to make those changes in ourselves. Also, we must realize each and every one of us is here to fulfill a purpose. Each and every one of us is gifted to do something.”
The highlight of the launch was the unveiling of the book which the CEO of Delta Publishers Nigeria Limited, Mr. Dillibe Onyeama, described as a masterpiece and felt honoured to have published as he did the first one.
While dedicating the book to her husband, Brigadier General Abdulmalik Halidu Giwa, in gratitude for his love and support, she read a paragraph from the novel. “Regrettably, all the ills, identified in the book are still very present with us today. Basically, the story is about corruption and how the society needs to change, so that, we can develop.”
Adding that, the only way for Nigeria to have a bright future is by instilling responsibility, good moral character, honesty and values in the youth in a bid to ensure that the country moves forward.