Showing posts with label Sculpture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sculpture. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Highlights from the 2022 Lagos Book and Art Festival

 


Highlights from the 2022 Lagos Book and Art Festival








The 2022 annual Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF) opened on Monday November 14 at the popular Freedom Park on Lagos Island in Nigeria. 
LABAF 2022 is specifically dedicated to Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya, the most phenomenal Nigerian artist and the most published African artist who is famous for his intriguing prints, paintings and sculptures. He has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C; the Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden, National Museum and National Art Gallery in Lagos among other places in his illustrious career as an iconic visionary of contemporary art in over five decades since 1957 to date. He celebrated his 90th birthday on August 30. 
Onobrakpeya spoke about his life and works as a artist during an exhibition of his installations.  A short documentary film on his popular Harmattan Workshop in his homeplace, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State was screened and Co-founder of CORA and LABAF, the polymath and patron of the arts, Toyin Akinosho spoke on how Onobrakpeya has been part of LABAF from the very beginning.

There was a symposium on "Our Inheritance: What I Took From Bruce" by Barret Akpokabayen, Kunle Adeyemi, Juliet Ezenwa, Oguchukwu Ejiofor and Nse Abasi Inyang.

Later famous veteran artist and administrator, Pa Timothy Adebanjo Fasuyi and Prof. Ebun Clark spoke about the early years of Onobrakpeya from being one of the "Zaria Rebels" at the Ahmadu Bello University whilst studying fine arts to the later years moderated by Mufu Onifade, artist and arts writer.
 



LABAF 2022 on the theme of "Pathways to the Future" runs from November 14-20 at the Freedom Park and virtually via Zoom and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 



Acclaimed Nigerian filmmaker, Tunde Kelani's "Saworoide" and "Lift"  by young filmmaker, Abraham Amkpa were screened on the opening day. Kelani was present for the Q&A interactive conversation with the audience on his political film produced in 1999.

LABAF 2022 is the 24th edition of the hybrid international book fair and art festival founded in 1999 by the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), as a literary and visual festival for “freedom of creative expression to herald the rebirth of Democratic governance in Africa’s biggest nation”. There are over 50 books in focus with over 60 independent sessions of literary conversations, visual arts (fine and applied arts and crafts); performances in poetry, drama, dance, music and sociocultural interactions with participants in Nigeria and other countries. 

The Curator/Director, Jahman Anikulapo, said the discourse around "Pathways to the Future" is meant to “figure a way out of the ‘State of Flux’ which led us to a ‘Fork in the Road. See the programmes on https://www.lagosbookartfestival.org.


Sunday, August 8, 2021

Nupe Historians Say the Original Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was Located in Nupe Land

 #ife

#ifeart

#oduduwa 

#kingdom

#nupe

#historians

#archeology

Nupe Historians Say the Original  Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was Located in Nupe Land

I have read a very long piece of historical analysis on the origins of Odùduwà published on https://nationalsportslink.com.ng/amp/oduduwa-the-nupe-man-by-ndagi-abdullahi/ . The writer claimed that Odùduwà was a Nupe demigod by the River Niger and that the name of Odùduwà came from Odù, the Nupe name for River Niger and so Odùduwà means the man from the river. And that the Yoruba were Nupe people who migrated from KinNupe to the South West region of Nigeria.

He quoted historians and scholars, including Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Rev. Samuel Johnson and Prof. David D. Laitin, he called authorities whose analyses are indisputable and irrefutable facts of history. But unfortunately for him and his hypotheses, he did not provide any archeological evidence. If the original Odùduwà and Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were in KinNupe, then how come the sculptures of ancient Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were discovered in the present location of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and not by the banks of the River Niger? The only sculpture found in Nupe land is included in the history of Ifẹ̀ Art on https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/chapters/ancient-africa/ife/?start=13.

He said an Arabian historian, El Bakri, "writing in the 1060s, made it clear that the Nupe Nation, or Ed-Denden, was the greatest and most powerful empire in Africa south of the Sahara". But he failed to give any archeological evidence of this so called greatest and most powerful empire in sub-Saharan Africa. 

How come we have not discovered Bronze sculptures of ancient KinNupe in the present location of Nupe people?

Not a single archeological evidence in Nupe Art and not a single link to IFA Divination.

History is full fairy tales and hearsays, but archeology is full of concrete works of facts of life.

From the dating of Ifẹ̀ Art , I can emphatically state that the history of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ dates back to 600 BCE and not in KinNupe. 

- EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima


Sunday, August 1, 2021

SOYINKA and the Quest for the Ori Olokun

 SOYINKA and the Quest for the Ori Olokun

The first African Nobel Laureate in Literature Prof. Wole Soyinka is 80 years old today, born on July 13, 1934. And the enigmatic and phenomenal genius is famous for his dare devil exploits including the one that landed him in jail. 

In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years after he secretly and unofficially met with the military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the Southeastern town of Enugu (August 1967), to try to avert civil war. Go and read his "The Man Died" for his prison notes.

In 1978, Wole Soyinka was made aware of the existence of a bronze head in a private collection in Brazil – similar to the disputed one discovered by the famous German archaeologist Leo Frobenius (29 June 1873 – 9 August 1938) in 1910, which now stood in the Ife Museum, but of far greater quality. In his memoir "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" (2007), Soyinka recalls how, in a spirit of cultural duty, and with the knowledge of the Nigerian authorities, he mounted a kind of guerrilla raid with a group of friends, stealing the object from the apartment in question in near-farcical circumstances, and removing it to the Senegalese capital Dakar, where experts proclaimed it genuine. Suspicious, however, of the lightness of the object, Soyinka examined it further to find the letters “BM” stamped on the back: it was a British Museum replica, once sold in the museum’s shop. Soyinka then declared the British Museum’s head to be the real 'Ori Olokun", even though it was excavated 18 years after Frobenius’s original discovery.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka Orikinla Osinachi, prize winning Nigerian writer since age 13, author of Children of Heaven, Sleepless Night, Scarlet Tears of London, Bye, Bye Mugabe (now being revised with the new title of Bye, Bye Zimbabwe and other books.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Sculpture of Girl Killed in Car Crash Stolen From School

18 Mar 2010 19:36 Africa/Lagos

Sculpture of Girl Killed in Car Crash Stolen From School

LONDON, March 18, 2010/PRNewswire/ --


- With Photo


We wanted to make an e-mail statement regarding the theft of the sculpture of our daughter Camilla in the early hours of Thursday 11th March.


Both my wife and I are absolutely devastated and numb with shock with regard to what has happened. The sculpture was paid for by donations to Camilla's memorial fund following her tragic death in a car accident on June 28th 2003. Camilla was a very popular and very happy pupil at Felsted School. Although none of you knew her personally, if you had, you would have been touched by her kindness, her generosity, her zest for life and her ability to see the good in every person she came into contact with. She was a very successful young sportswoman representing both school and county at hockey and would have been a very successful individual in whatever she did until her life was cut so tragically short.


The sculpture was commissioned as a sign to recognise her beautiful and positive outlook of her too short life. The sculpture was a positive statement celebrating her life and was a very popular commission supported by the school and all of her friends. For us as parents, we felt that her legacy would live on in an environment where she was so happy.


With regard to the theft, words fail us to describe our thoughts of the people who committed this crime. However, we want to focus our efforts on trying to get the sculpture back and would suggest this may be possible if all parties pull together in the same direction. The sculpture is the responsibility of the school so my wife and I do not intend to be interviewed or want to make any statement. This is the responsibility of the school and I have spoken to the Headmaster, Dr Mike Walker, who is fully supportive of our actions. In fact, he has already been interviewed by the BBC and this has appeared on television as well as their website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8574274.stm).


We have sent details of the theft to the British Metals Recycling Association, the body that monitors the industry and they have promised to send out details to their members. Apparently, metal theft is a serious crime now but the perpetrators have no conscience as to what they steal and the money they make in selling on such a precious item as "scrap" is minimal.


We believe that the media will be interested in this as the original events surrounding the accident was high profile in both the local and national media. I feel that the media should contact the school for comment and any views on the circumstances of the theft. We are hoping that this be reported in as many newspapers as possible, in the hope that this precious sculpture can be returned to the people who love it most. It is almost a week now since the theft, so your urgent assistance is greatly appreciated.


I am willing to accept phone calls to talk but neither my wife or I want to be interviewed in front of cameras or microphones.


In anticipation, thank you for your help, in trying to recover this beautiful piece that represents such a beautiful, wonderful and kind person.


A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.



Kind regards

David Hamilton
+44(0)7720-898524

Source: Protel

David Hamilton, +44(0)7720-898524