Nigeria Content Online

The Centre for
Contemporary Art hosted a press conference in honour of veteran
photographer, JD ’Okhai Ojeikere, to congratulate him for winning the
Chobi Mela Award for Excellence and Service to the arts. The event,
organised in collaboration with Foto Ojeikere, was to follow up on the
award, conferred on the octogenarian at the Chobi Mela Photography
Festival, held recently in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The press
conference also provided an opportunity to announce the first
comprehensive survey of Ojeikere’s work, titled ‘Moments of Beauty’
which opens this month as part of the ARS11 exhibition at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland. Attending the CCA briefing was
the sound artist Emeka Ogboh, who is also participating as one of 30
contemporary African artists in ARS11, which holds from April 15 to
November 27, 2011. Ogboh will be displaying his work inside and outside
the venue. Other artists in ARS11 include: El Anatsui, Abraham
Oghobase, Georges Adéagbo, Samba Fall, Laura Horelli, Alfredo Jaar,
Otobong Nkanga, Nandipha Mntambo, Odili Odita and Barthélémy Toguo.

Important archive

Ojeikere’s wife
and daughter-in-law Yewande Ojeikere, who went to Bangladesh to receive
the award on his behalf, were present at the Lagos event honouring him.

Bisi Silva,
artistic director of the CCA and curator for the Ojeikere exhibition in
Finland, shed more light on the photographer’s works for ARS11. She
said that the works contain images of the visit of the Queen of England
to Nigeria in 1956; and a compilation of images on Nigerian education
between 1956 and 1972. She explained that the veteran photographer had
documented these images while taking his usual Sunday rides back in the
day. “They form a very important archive of images after independence,
they form the dreams and visions of a new nation,” Silva noted.

ARS11 is held every
five years; this year’s edition marks its 50th anniversary and it is
focusing on Africa. Five floors of the exhibition will be dedicated to
contemporary art from the African continent; an entire floor will be
used to exclusively display Ojeikere’s images.

In response to
Yewande Ojeikere’s account of her experiences while in Bangladesh,
Silva said that, “There is a huge discourse to be engaged in with the
southern hemisphere. They are developing countries, and we share
colonial history. So it is important we engage more with these places.”
The Chobi Mela Award funds a scholarship for one person to study in a
popular school of photography in Bangladesh.

For the love of art

The octogenarian
could not hide his joy at receiving the award. “I am extremely happy,
that at my old age things are taking a different turn”, he enthused.
“Apart from God, I thank Andrea Mayan who published my work in 1998 and
I have been showing abroad since. I thank CCA under Bisi Silva. It was
through her I first met the organisers of Chobi Mela,” he added.

“I feel 25 years
younger. I did not imagine that these things will happen in my
lifetime,” Ojeikere said. With the insight of a sage, he advised young
photographers to be focused, dedicated and patient. He observed that
young photographers always seem to be in a hurry, when it took him so
many years to make his mark. “You must be creative, work hard and do
not be in a hurry,” he said.

Asked if he still
takes pictures at age 80, Ojeikere replied, “Two or three days ago I
saw a beautiful cloud formation and took some shots. Most of the
photographs you see, I take. I take them for the love of art and
appreciation of nature. Since I started taking pictures I keep all the
negatives.” Silva pointed out that there is an inter-generational
dialogue going on, as Ojeikere will be the oldest artist showing at the
ARS11 exhibition. According to her, “His works cover the 60s, 70s and
early 80s and are important in Nigerian history. This collection is a
national treasure and so it should be held in a national space but it
is a crying shame that there is no museum for modern and contemporary
art.” ‘Moments of Beauty’ attempts to highlight the breadth and depth
of Ojeikere’s practice; chronicling his experiences as a
photojournalist, commercial photographer and visual artist and
presenting works that cover a range of subjects including architecture,
education, fashion, weddings and culture festivities.

Moments of Beauty

It marks the
beginning of current scholarship and engagement with the artist’s
practice, which spans more than half of a century.

‘Moments of Beauty’
according to Silva “aims at giving in-depth perspectives to the
practice of an artist whose formidable archive has become a unique
anthropological, ethnographic, and artistic national treasure.” J.D.
Okhai Ojeikere was born in 1930 in Ovbiomu-Emai, today’s Edo State. He
has been a practising photographer for over 60 years and has taken part
in several exhibitions in Nigeria as well as internationally at events
and venues including: Goethe Institute; Maison de France; the
Foundation Cartier, Paris; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Documenta12,
Kassel, Germany.

ARS exhibitions, which have been organised since 1961, play a pivotal role in shaping contemporary art in Finland and beyond.

The 2011 edition will focus on Africa as presented in contemporary
art, with individual approaches from within the continent and the
Diaspora. The exhibition investigates myths and ideas associated with
African culture and African contemporary art.