By Chukwuma Ajakah
Sculptors Association of Nigeria, ScAN, is set to hold its national sculpture exhibition at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos from November 26 to December 3, 2022.
In a Press Briefing held at the Art Museum, Yaba College of Technology on Tuesday, November 15 to herald the upcoming event, ScAN National Vice-President (South-West), Muriana Akeem said that the exhibition subtly titled Elixir 2, a follow-up to the group’s first outing is meant to reposition sculptural practice and bring hope to the society against the backdrop of multifarious socio-economic and political problems bedeviling it.
Explaining what informed the thematic focus of the art exhibition, Muriana said “Elixir is a reinforced aesthetic panacea offered at the maiden exhibition on the challenging socio-economic and political situations in our beloved country. Through thoughtful critiquing, salient titles that reflect some worrisome trend of events around us, the needs for redirection or reinforcements where applicable, a gamut of available media of expression is quite enlightening on the versatility and dynamism of sculpture as a profession.”
Describing the prescriptive role of the expected 30 exhibiting artists and the central message embedded in the over 300 artworks, ScAN Secretary General, Dr. Shola Kukoyi, said: “Like a voice in the wilderness, the prophets, I mean the Sculptors have spoken. Let the nation test and examine itself and return to the path of glory.” Pointing out the vital role arts play societal development, he advised:
“There must be conscious policies to preserve, nurture and promote arts. It is a viable alternative to this season of despondency that pervades the nation. This is the time to make the best use of what the country can offer in terms of material and human potentials. Lessons must be learnt, prices must be paid. Elixir provides a pill that must be taken.”
Another national executive member of the body, Dr. Adeola M. Balogun who is also one of the exhibiting artists and Chief Lecturer at the Fine Art Department, School of Art, Design and Printing, Yabatech revealed that the three-year-old association was formed out of the need to sanitize sculpture practice and let it take its deserved rightful place as a major driver of tourism in Nigeria. “It is gladdening to roll out the drums in celebration of the second outing of ScAN,” he said, adding that “The profound efforts of the Executive towards sustaining not only the tempo, but raising the bar with respect to the quality of work is remarkable. It is an attestation to the notion that ScAN is not about the ‘movement’ alone, but particular about making impactful progression and the quest to promote sculpture as a veritable genre of art to relate with nationally and globally.”
According to Balogun, “The Executive is aware of the enormity of the task entrusted to it and is truly alive to it. It remains resolute and undaunted in the face of obvious challenges. Hard-work, commitment and selflessness, have been invested in gathering the calibers of artists featured in Elixir 2. The oeuvre traverses different formal and contextual discourses, including the socio-cultural, economic and the political spaces in connection with our current realities as a people. These notions are perceptible in the works, literally or metaphorically.”
One of Balogun’s own entries, titled “Aye: The Godess of Money” encapsulates thematic concerns, covering virtually all the perspectives as it exposes the sorry state of Nigeria’s ailing economy, decrying the alarming rate of devaluation which had rendered massive bags of money, especially the coins, useless.
Commenting on the sculpture, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi, a renowned art connoisseur and educator remarked that artworks like Balogun’s “Aje” challenge political leaders with sad commentaries on regressive socio-economic and political trends occasioned by those in government through retrogressive policies. “The artist depicts the negative role of government, the values that ought to be given to cherished things like the currency. The coins are valueless now, but if you go to the West, they still use coins.”
Elixir 2 will feature the following artists and works that attest to their ingenuity in material exploration and message delivery: Shola Kukoyi, Adeola Balogun, Olusegun Aina, Adeogun David, Nelson Edevor, Iloani, Yusuf Seidu Oku, Nobert Okpu, Adetola Adenuga, Ayooluwa Akinrinola, Emma Ifeanyi, Ganiyu Wasiu, Iyke Okenyi, Kenneth Njoku, Author Arinze, Felix Anyaduba, Oladapo Afolanyan, Muriana Akeem and a female Cameroonian ceramic artist and sculptor, Djakousi Natalie Kassi.
According to the organizers, the exhibiting artists from different parts of the country have entries typifying daring explorations in diverse materials- wood, terracotta, bronze, stone, fabric, metal, treated wood, mixed media, glassfibre and junk (specially explored by Junkmanfromafrica in his quintessential “Junk Assemblage”).
Curator of the exhibition, Moses Ohiomokhare, revealed that some famous artists from other genres will be featuring as guest artists on the auspicious occasion. These include the revered Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi, Dr.Aladegbongbe Aderinsoye and Prof. Dilompriluike, the Junkmanfromafrica.
Speaking on the waste to wealth phenomenon, Adeola Balogun, said: “Since the tree will not fall far from the tree, it is on this premise that appropriation found its footing with modern artists. In the modern era, multifarious items that have outlived their usefulness, instead of being discarded are now finding their way into the artists’ studios. On this premise appropriation found its footing with modern artists.
In the modern era, multifarious items that have outlived their usefulness, instead of being discarded are now finding their way into the artists’ studios. They are now being given a second life through recycling, appropriation or assemblage. The result of this is the evolution of awe-inspiring poetic and evocative artworks being presented in this second evolutionary exhibition, Elixir 2.”
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