Artist Statement: -
...Art is a limitless expressive tool of freewill. Therefore, its visual thoughts can serve to remind us that the limitation of one’s imagination is a limitation to one’s growth. And art devoid of optimistic imagination is art with limitations...
Growing up as an artist, I have always being intrigued by the intricacies of traditional craft processes and the use of non-conventional materials as art mediums. I also envisioned creating forms that communicate with and integrate elements from my environment, using the language of lines to replicate and transcribe societal and political occurrences and my experiences of nature. These visions and interests still abounds, continuously shaping my existence and creative attitude to life. Now identifying as a Neo-traditional artist, my creative practice is about the transitions of African culture, within a globalized society, particularly Nigerian traditional aesthetics and cultural environmental ideologies. Such as material and non-material object reuse and repurposing – an ideology that focuses on formulating “new values” and extending the significance for objects assumed to have lost their “newness”.
As a visual artist my primary media are discarded non-biodegradable plastic / polyethylene bags and bottles which are two main global environmental pollutants, especially in my home country Nigeria. Using a concept I developed, called Plasto-art [1](coined from the words plastic and art), I repurpose these bags and bottles with a receding traditional Nigerian hair-plaiting technique, called Threading[2] (also know as Ikpa Owu – in Igbo language). I visually express the narrative of this domestic object’s possible transition from discarded to the aesthetic or functional – an evolution from redundancy to utility while retaining the hair craft’s technique or object’s physical state. The aesthetic metamorphoses of these discarded plastic bags, first crafted into Plasto-yarns, are usually in form of very instinctive, conceptual, and sometimes complex yet organic sculptures, characterized by lines, circles and loops, with installations that reference domestic spaces, furniture, architectural forms, reiterations of my cultural experiences, and discourses about the human body. Thematically, there is interplay of symbolic ideas drawn from traditional folklore, fashion, music and poetry. Through these sculptures and installations I examine modern and contemporary portrayal of value and value systems most times formed by elements that uphold social abnormalities such as compulsive material excessiveness. Furthermore, I constantly reflect on the implications of our modernity’s: consumptive systems of mass accumulation, waste generation or social attitude to value and the expiration-date syndrome, cultural assimilation and colonial orientations on beauty, authenticity and newness. In addition to metaphorically and spontaneously engaging these “old” plastic objects, I try to emphasize the potency of traditional crafting methodologies, highlighting the mark of the hand through supposedly menial obsolete techniques such as Threading and loom weaving. This is evident in my repetitive physical manipulation of the ubiquitous materials.
My works are sculpted to encourage multiple interpretations from the viewer, with the aim to convey the importance of value preservation while, hopefully, stimulating a positive catalytic collective response towards eco-cultural issues. Furthermore, it joins other similar aesthetic practices interested in probing the psychological and material appreciation of African (and minority) cultures in post-colonial contemporary societies. Noting reductive effects of the very politicized historical study and archiving of the continent including today’s compulsory ethnic assimilations, disguised as globalization, on the composition of our varied identities, whether gender or racial oriented.
While part of the general motivation of this Neo-traditional reuse concept is to highlight the universal environmental impact of material object accumulation. Its intent is to not aid the growing obliteration of traditional African aesthetic values by global cultural pressures. Rather, to encourage the sustenance of these values within global cultures. Plasto-art is an exploration on the intensity and adverse magnitude of contemporary value systems and my interpretation of traditional material culture reuse in Nigeria. But the concept should not to be mistaken for Recycling, which is a different waste reclamation process. Neither should it be considered as “Upcycling”. Since this is a more modern and contemporary terminology that is most times erroneously used to define all related reuse art practices from all parts of the world.
…Used and discarded plastic bags or bottles may be tagged an environmental pollutant but to me it is a rich viable resource that must be exploited beyond its predesigned use, by everyone including artists.
[1] Plasto-art is a Neo-traditional reuse concept that transforms and repurposes discarded non-biodegradable plastic bags and bottles using the techniques of a receding traditional Nigerian hair –plaiting craft, known as Threading. The initial transforming process of the plastic bags is known as Plasto-yarning.
[2] Threading is a beautiful traditional hair plaiting technique and an elaborate hair architectural process, also known as African hair threading, which was predominantly practiced in some West African countries, Nigeria in particular. Sadly it is becoming an obsolete hair craft.
...Art is a limitless expressive tool of freewill. Therefore, its visual thoughts can serve to remind us that the limitation of one’s imagination is a limitation to one’s growth. And art devoid of optimistic imagination is art with limitations...
Growing up as an artist, I have always being intrigued by the intricacies of traditional craft processes and the use of non-conventional materials as art mediums. I also envisioned creating forms that communicate with and integrate elements from my environment, using the language of lines to replicate and transcribe societal and political occurrences and my experiences of nature. These visions and interests still abounds, continuously shaping my existence and creative attitude to life. Now identifying as a Neo-traditional artist, my creative practice is about the transitions of African culture, within a globalized society, particularly Nigerian traditional aesthetics and cultural environmental ideologies. Such as material and non-material object reuse and repurposing – an ideology that focuses on formulating “new values” and extending the significance for objects assumed to have lost their “newness”.
As a visual artist my primary media are discarded non-biodegradable plastic / polyethylene bags and bottles which are two main global environmental pollutants, especially in my home country Nigeria. Using a concept I developed, called Plasto-art [1](coined from the words plastic and art), I repurpose these bags and bottles with a receding traditional Nigerian hair-plaiting technique, called Threading[2] (also know as Ikpa Owu – in Igbo language). I visually express the narrative of this domestic object’s possible transition from discarded to the aesthetic or functional – an evolution from redundancy to utility while retaining the hair craft’s technique or object’s physical state. The aesthetic metamorphoses of these discarded plastic bags, first crafted into Plasto-yarns, are usually in form of very instinctive, conceptual, and sometimes complex yet organic sculptures, characterized by lines, circles and loops, with installations that reference domestic spaces, furniture, architectural forms, reiterations of my cultural experiences, and discourses about the human body. Thematically, there is interplay of symbolic ideas drawn from traditional folklore, fashion, music and poetry. Through these sculptures and installations I examine modern and contemporary portrayal of value and value systems most times formed by elements that uphold social abnormalities such as compulsive material excessiveness. Furthermore, I constantly reflect on the implications of our modernity’s: consumptive systems of mass accumulation, waste generation or social attitude to value and the expiration-date syndrome, cultural assimilation and colonial orientations on beauty, authenticity and newness. In addition to metaphorically and spontaneously engaging these “old” plastic objects, I try to emphasize the potency of traditional crafting methodologies, highlighting the mark of the hand through supposedly menial obsolete techniques such as Threading and loom weaving. This is evident in my repetitive physical manipulation of the ubiquitous materials.
My works are sculpted to encourage multiple interpretations from the viewer, with the aim to convey the importance of value preservation while, hopefully, stimulating a positive catalytic collective response towards eco-cultural issues. Furthermore, it joins other similar aesthetic practices interested in probing the psychological and material appreciation of African (and minority) cultures in post-colonial contemporary societies. Noting reductive effects of the very politicized historical study and archiving of the continent including today’s compulsory ethnic assimilations, disguised as globalization, on the composition of our varied identities, whether gender or racial oriented.
While part of the general motivation of this Neo-traditional reuse concept is to highlight the universal environmental impact of material object accumulation. Its intent is to not aid the growing obliteration of traditional African aesthetic values by global cultural pressures. Rather, to encourage the sustenance of these values within global cultures. Plasto-art is an exploration on the intensity and adverse magnitude of contemporary value systems and my interpretation of traditional material culture reuse in Nigeria. But the concept should not to be mistaken for Recycling, which is a different waste reclamation process. Neither should it be considered as “Upcycling”. Since this is a more modern and contemporary terminology that is most times erroneously used to define all related reuse art practices from all parts of the world.
…Used and discarded plastic bags or bottles may be tagged an environmental pollutant but to me it is a rich viable resource that must be exploited beyond its predesigned use, by everyone including artists.
[1] Plasto-art is a Neo-traditional reuse concept that transforms and repurposes discarded non-biodegradable plastic bags and bottles using the techniques of a receding traditional Nigerian hair –plaiting craft, known as Threading. The initial transforming process of the plastic bags is known as Plasto-yarning.
[2] Threading is a beautiful traditional hair plaiting technique and an elaborate hair architectural process, also known as African hair threading, which was predominantly practiced in some West African countries, Nigeria in particular. Sadly it is becoming an obsolete hair craft.
