A SHOW WITH THE DOCTORS
You may be expecting to read that a new television series with medical focal point is in the offing. Well, it’s a joint exhibition of paintings, prints and mixed media by two academic artists, Dr. Sukanthy Egharevba and Dr. Kunle Adeyemi. They both built the body of works on research and executed them in the studio. These doctors finished their Ph.D programme at the Delta State University, Abraka where they met. Their show titled, “Knowledge Across Boundaries’’ will open on May 25 till June 20 at Quintessence Gallery, Lekki. The show, amongst other things, is a cross-cultural effort in art. It converges Egharevba’s Sri Lankan perspective with Adeyemi’s Nigerian outlook. There are a few things you should learn about these artists if you will appreciate their works on sight.
For Adeyemi, every painting is a result of research and the work itself is a philosophy of life. He revealed that the thematic focus of the exhibition is stemmed from the need to revamp the studio practice cum culture through creative techniques, genre synthesis and hands-on skills. He transports the spectator to his social reality; picking subjects from multiple angles. What is very fascinating about his technique is the experimentation that synchronises four existing techniques namely, painting, printmaking, sculpture and construction. Instead of boxing himself in a technique, he chose a box of idea to collect four other techniques. How creative!
“The resultant effect of this synergy is the creation of a new, complex and intricate creative possibilities which I call Paintograph and Paintocast in studio art making. In demonstrating this synthesis, the study combines the technique, skills, methods and materials common to all of these four artistic genres.
“This ongoing study has the tendency to provide a direction capable of stimulating change and act as catalyst for budding visual artists,’’ he stated.
Dr. Adeyemi also referred to Demas Nwoko’s painting titled “Nigeria 1959’’ as one of Nigeria’s masterpieces which earned respect due to the underlying philosophical content. The work, he said, showed three colonial masters bidding Nigeria goodbye. The guards in the painting look happy knowing that freedom was at their finger-tips. That work is also a viable documentation of history which is a trend in many of Adeyemi’s works in this exhibition. For instance, his experimentation with Copperfoil brought “Razzmatazz of the Kingmakers I’’ while his paintocast titled, “It’s time to wind up (the Festival is over II)” serves as a reminder of the political climate of the period in which the works were done. Governance is depicted as festival and the players seem to be beating the same drums. Another intriguing piece titled, “Post Oil Boom! Reality Stares us on the face I’’ is a mirror on the current state of affairs in a country that is naturally endowed with crude oil yet is plunged in poverty and misery. Additionally, “Political cross-currents’’ captures the picture of an unstable polity while calm and tranquility is restored with the work titled, “Peace that greeted the telephone conversation (the sunflower).’’
On her part, Dr. Egharevba was highly influenced by the Nigerian and Sri Lankan cultures. She grew up in both cultural backgrounds and has the advantage of gleaning the similarities from both ends.
“My father has been in Nigeria since 1982 and had worked in Makurdi, Benue as an art teacher, retiring into studio work,’’ she explained.
Born in Jaffna, the northern part of SriLanka, she had her education in Nigeria, both within and outside the four walls of the classroom. Having obtained her first and second degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, her work is naturally influenced by Uli art. While conducting her studio research in Abraka, she couldn’t help but notice the parallels in the art of the Tamil of Sri-Lanka and the Tiv of Nigeria. She also discovered that a lot has been written on the history of art and culture of these two ethnic groups but no studio art practice has addressed the issue of synthesis of the art elements in the two cultures. That became her concern.
“The main mission of my works for this show is to synthesize Tamil and Tiv pictorial elements that are visible and applicable to the creative art of the two cultures. I produce a body of work that incorporates the pictorial elements of Tamil and Tiv art forms and thereby promote the knowledge of synthesis in art production as a means of developing skills in studio practice,’’ she remarked.
She wouldn’t want the works to be branded as Tiv or Tamil but should be viewed as contemporary art forms, motifs and idioms by a Sri-Lankan Nigerian painter. Her works have aesthetic appeal and humane touch. Her subjects are predominantly female forms and the central mood is gleeful. For instance her painting titled, “The burdens we bear” shows women who are performing their daily domestic duties as mothers, wives and home-keepers with pride. There are also, “Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice’’, “Adolescence’’, “The Way We Are I &II’’ and “My Own World’’ that celebrate womanhood. On a gloomy note, “Pangs of Womanhood’’ allows the spectator to reflect on the pains of child delivery and other such experiences that are unique to women that should make them be treated with love and care. What budding artists will likely take home from the show is how she has carefully appropriated her thoughts in various media especially formic and perspex to give that lasting glossy look that befits the subject- women.