Tuesday, January 24, 2006

20th Century Art... Nigeria tells her own story
By Chuka Nnabuife and Bridget Chiedu Onochie

IN the perceived highly political and undemocratically structured world of the arts, there are people whose views make more sense than those of others, even though they do not say anything more reasonable.

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Nigeria is a victim of this unfortunate development as the voices that would tell the authentic stories of its artistic records are drowned in obscurity. Hence, art history books and journals of reviews are full of reports on Nigerian traditional and contemporary arts written by researchers whose knowledge about the country's cultures are informed by experiences during visits and sometimes periods they served as expatriates. Artist and University of Nigeria Nsukka lecturer, C. Krydz Ikwuemesi used an old expression, "intimate outsiders" to describe such commentators.

But it is the views of these researchers who are mostly, Western and respected authorities, operating within the mainstream that the global art circle accepts. On the contrary, the few Nigerians who write about those cultures that they know and live with, all their life, have their manuscripts lost in the 'not publishable' racks of many media houses.

Ikwuemesi however reasons that "the only saving grace is when we tell our own stories the way they are because no matter how intimate the outsider is, he can't know you more than you know yourself and he can't love you more. So, the sense is in what (Chinua) Achebe said: If one does not lick his lips, the harmattan will lick it for him."

Consequently, Ikwuemesi and a group of artists, critics, art scholars as well as Pendulum Centre for Culture and Development, Lagos are collaborating with the National Gallery of Art (NGA) to stage an international project tagged 20th Century Art: A Story From Nigeria. The initiative involving touring art exhibitions, book publication, film documentary and talks is aimed at telling "the true story of Nigerian contemporary art from the Nigerian source," said artist and author, Emeka Agbayi, a member of the organising team.

Project director, Ikwuemesi informed that "the project is more of an intellectual attempt that can serve as a basis for more articulate and concrete art history of Nigeria." He believes that many long-held erroneous notions about the country's almost one century-old contemporary art would be effectively addressed by the event.

His words: "We want to tell our own story by ourselves." Although he identified art journalists and writers in some of the nation's serious dailies as being about the only people who document some of the events that happen in Nigerian art, he observed: "Art history is not written on the pages of newspapers. That is why we are taking this step forward so as to provoke the thoughts of artists in the direction of documenting art trends and to enable those in that area of art (art historians) to rise up to their challenges and responsibilities."

The challenges being that, as the 20th Century Art team identified during their preparatory research, Nigeria has many Art History specialists, who are mostly in the academics. But those Nigerians who took several degrees and doctorates in the field seldom write or even visit studios or art events to take records. Hence the exhibition, according to Ikwuemesi and Agbayi aims at providing an objective platform on which the historiography of the modern art in Nigeria can be articulated and advanced. It would strive to offer chronological representations of the modern Nigerian art by establishing major landmarks and showing the vital relationships between art schools, exhibition groups and individuals who have in one way or the other, contributed to the field's development in the country since early 20th century.

Ikuwemesi captures it this way: "A lot is done in the history of arts but not much in terms of the background. I think, I should say that Nigerian art tradition is vibrant. It has come a long way. But looking at the historical aspect, we have not really done much. In terms of writing, we would find that we have done nothing in spite of all our efforts. In as much as it is pertinent to know that we should, and we have to tell our story because no one can tell our story for us, we should also be making remarkable efforts to get the world hear, see and read that our story", he emphasised.

With this idea in mind, the organisers plan a fiesta which along with book-form catalogue publication will comprise the exhibition and documentary of the works of the founding fathers of Nigerian contemporary art as well as that of current frontline practitioners.

About 150 artists including such names as Aina Onabolu, Ben Enwonwu, C.C. Ibeto, Uche Okeke, Yusuf Gillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, Obiora Udechukwu, Kolade Oshinowo, Chris Afuba, Susan Wenger, Jimoh Buraimoh, Twin Seven Seven among others will be featured in the exhibitions scheduled to begin in May and run until 2008. The exhibitions are planned to be first shown, this May in Sheik Anta Diop University gallery, Dakar during the period of the influential Dark' Art (The Dakar Biennale). Thereafter, it comes to Nigeria in September. The show will be mounted in four venues in Lagos, namely Goethe Institut and TerraKulture, Victoria Island; Aina Onabolu Art Centre of National Gallery of Art in National Gallery Annex, Iganmu and Pendulum Art Gallery, Lekki Phase 1. After this, the exhibition will go to Amsterdam for its grand finale.

Ambitious and somewhat adventurous in nature, the project also accommodates a one-hour documentary entitled Modern Nigerian Art in the 20th Century.

The book catalogue of the exhibition would be accompanied by an audio-visual recording of events expected to come in compact disc format. Notable scholars designated to write articles for publication in the catalogue include Prof. Ola Oloidi who would take a critical-generational survey of modern art in Nigeria. There is also Prof. Chike Aniakor who takes on the problems of interpretation in history of modern Nigeria art. Other contributors to the discursive compendium include Osa D. Egonwa, Dele Jegede, Olu Oguibe, Paul Chike Dike. Peter Ezeh, Kunle Filani, Frank Ugiomoh, Freeborn Odiboh, Jacob Jari, Simon Ikpakronyi, Jerry Buhari, Ozioma Onuzulike, Kingsley Ene-Orji, Okey Nwafor, Ikwuemesi among others. The publication will equally contain interviews of classical (traditional) Nigerian artists. These discussions will be conducted and transcribed in local languages in order not to lose much of the artists' real content but English language translations will be contained in the publication.

The periods under review include the first generation artists, the Colonial era (1900-1960), the second generation, the Post-Colonial, (1970-19850 and the third generation comprising the art and artists of the hyper-military regime, the era of social miscreants, high wave of corruption, violence and social injustice, tagged: The Neo-colonial period of 1985 till date.

Speaking of the likely cost of their project, the director said that on a low budget, the plan would take about N12 million given such vital expenses as insurance, shipping and return of works between Nigeria and Europe as well as cost of venues and the making of films and presentation slides. Though not disclosing their likely sources of funding, Ikwuemesi hinted that aside NGA and Pendulum, not many Nigerian organisations who had been contacted, had invested in the project while some Western agencies have shown positive interest even as the expected fund has not been raised.