Nigeria Content Online

New directions in
the art world were highlighted at the recently concluded residency
jointly organised by UK-based Triangle Network and the Lagos-based
Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). The workshop held at Stone House,
Alakuko, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Lagos from October 4 to
17.

Apart from the
opportunity of working in a serene environment, 15 participants were
able to discuss and share ideas among themselves and their
facilitators. Eight Nigerians artists – Peju Layiwola, Karo Akpokiere,
Stephen Ubaka, Ngozi Omeje, Victoria Udondian, Adeniyi Odeleye, Kelani
Abass, and Ghana-based Rasheed Olaniyi – took part in the workshop.
Others were Eva Jung from South Korea; Achille Komguem from Cameroun;
Mthabisi Philli from Zimbabwe, and Mexican, Pablo Rasgado. Senegalese,
Henry Sagna, and Ghanaian, Akwele Suma Glory, completed the list.

Norway-based
Zambian, Anawana Hobol and Romero Gongora, a Canadian of Guatemalan
descent, facilitated the workshop which also looked at the environment,
people’s interaction with it and effects of the interactions. There was
an open day on October 16 to showcase works produced during the
workshop. While some were solo, others were collaborations in line with
Triangle workshop’s goal of promoting exchange of ideas, innovations
and working together.

A minus suitcase

Works ranging from
installations that include sound and video to wall motifs, photographs
and performances were exhibited. New York resident, Jung, showed an
excerpt from ‘A Minus Suitcase’, a video project that experiments with
movement, storage and surplus. The artist videos herself and compresses
works of 19 artists into a suitcase she travels round the world with.

“It’s clear the
works will get damaged—a lot at first, and then more over time. From
city to city, repeating the inevitable process of packing and
unpacking, I dismantle, re-enact and reconstitute nineteen works,
blurring the role of artist and curator. Constantly reshaping and
transforming in new contexts, the journey becomes the form of art in
time, not the container of works,” Jung explained.

She added that the
works have been shown in Seoul, Dusseldorf, Montreal and New York. She
also collaborated with Rasgado for a project for which they read
alternate pages of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. Each wrote a
summary and sent it as an electronic mail to the other; these were then
presented to the public in Alakuko. Jung said, “The idea is to read the
book page by page, alternating the pages between each other and
depending on each other’s summary. I met Pablo in Lagos and we are
trying to understand the country through the book. Through this, we
want to make art that doesn’t end in one exhibition, but something that
continues with time. As an outsider how do you understand art through
literature? I don’t know what happens at the end.”

Transformations

Glory, a
multimedia artist, felt the workshop was different from others she had
attended. “In other workshops, it’s mostly a chat on technical things,
but this workshop is more in depth, you get to have a one-on-one
conversation with the facilitators.” The artist who chose performance
art as her medium during the training, disclosed that she was motivated
to do so by her interaction with Hobol and Gongora. “Because of my
experience with the facilitators, it has ignited a change for me, from
the old to the new, without me losing my true identity.”

She added that she
hopes to project Africa to the world and use art as a tool for
communication and development with her performance titled
‘Transformations’. She uses 54- year-old Kente material worn by her
mother on Ghana’s Independence Day in 1957, a wig, her silhouette and
newspaper cuttings in her performance. “This is not the end, it’s just
starting. I am going to continue this transformation in Ghana and
beyond. I will tell my story my way, I want to be recognised but
maintain my identity in the world.”

Beyond aesthetics

Located a few
blocks away from the Stone House is Rosgado’s monument, an obelisk made
from concrete blocks placed on a raised platform. “It’s like a living
monument, it serves beyond aesthetics,” he said. The Mexican who used
concrete blocks because he knew they would be put to other uses once
the exhibition ends, was also interested in the reaction of people
viewing the piece. “I am more interested in the way the people react; I
have been thinking about the space here in Nigeria and it’s different
from the one in Mexico. So, with this monument, I experiment on the
dynamics of space.” He disclosed that he noticed two days after making
the monument that the locals were coming to the spot to interact and
dry their clothes on the blocks.

Udondian
collaborated with Olaniyi to make a tent installation from nylon, pure
water satchets, dry palm fronds and old computer monitors. They
included a sound and video installation inside the tent for visitors to
sit and watch videos of their work in progress and listen to the sounds
of Lagos. Udondian disclosed that while some local residents offered to
help them collect pure water sachets that littered the environment,
others thought they were sanitary inspectors and began cleaning their
environment when they saw them.

Artist and
academic, Layiwola, who is a judge at this year’s ‘Life in My City’ art
competition holding in Enugu, commended the workshop. She said she
wanted to participate in a project that has affiliations with the
National Gallery of Art. The fact that Tony Okpe had been involved in
the Triangle workshop in the past, also encouraged her.

The Triangle Network was founded in 1982 as Triangle Arts Trust by
Robert Loder and Anthony Caro. It is a network of visual art
organisations and artists who organise artist led workshops that
encourage experimentation, exchange and innovativeness trough their
activities with emphasis on process and professional development of
local communities. The organisation had previously organised two
workshops in Kaduna and Jos that featured artists Tony Okpe and Jacob
Jari.