A Warning From Our Past, And Future: 'Crossing The Line', an exhibition of Victor Ehikhamenor's Art
Review and Interview
Crossing The Line explores, in art, the "multifaceted lines that were crossed during pivotal and pervasive events like the Kano riots of the 50s, the Tiv uprising of the early 60s and finally, the Nigeria Civil war which lasted from 1967-1970". That quote from the event brochure sets the tone for exploration of some of the darkness that has characterised Nigerian conflict and history, in the elegant Bloom Gallery of The Life House. The exhibition features 26 pieces, mostly in ink or charcoal on white backgrounds, (there is also one in Indian Ink on acrylic).Within the stillness, the presentation becomes an eruption of the artist's subconscious, in the clashing lines of his perspective.
The pieces revisit themes of war, conflict and displacement that have marked our history and some of our present. According to Victor, most of our conflicts have been along ethnic or religious lines, and while this exhibition may seem dark, and to play on the some stereotype of African life and conflict, he is telling a necessary story, he says.
Dark colours dominate the pieces on exhibition-black, with the occasional grim reds of blood and some of the frames, and they all deploy emotive messages in intricate patterns.
'Fear' is a monstrosity of arms, clawed feet and several harsh maws, lunging and grasping, bearing a skewed crown and composed of figurines with mouths enlarged in Os of surprise, or horror.
These small figurines are motifs that constitute larger images which Victor likens to the several layers humans, and all stories, have. These figurines are humans with a variety of expressions, few, if any, happy. Another motif is the dark (mostly black) crossing, clashing and storytelling lines, clustered around conflict, with flickers of redemption. Crossing The Line is a warning. It does not dance around the point. And it doesn't relent in multifaceted tellings of the effects of war-chilling, jarring and gritty.
Conflict is exemplified in 'Rain After Raid' (India ink on acrylic) showing a bleeding red figurine spread-eagled against a black chaotic background of ink running in harsh rills of rain, or smoke and crying tears, or blood, amidst a stark cry for help; and in 'Early Morning Bomb Raid', a figure is seemingly lifting an arm to shield its head, with arms and feet askew, and missing a heart.
The bold, profuse strokes of 'Redistribution', 'Reconstruction' and 'Recollection' explore themes of displacement, and the 'Refuge' series shows sad faces looking up to the skies, with dark pools at their feet. The 'Dog of War' is all sharp edges and snout, a coiled scorpion tail and human face.
'When Will My Saviour Come', 'Waiting For My Saviour' and 'Salvation/Starvation' are much larger paintings that constitute part of a series with large red-bordered crosses composed of faces and small figurines, and a cut-out collage featuring, in each case, the face of a bird of prey (owl or hawk) superimposed on a sitting figure, and a religious figure-cross or crucifix, in the centre of the cross. 'When Will My Saviour Come' has ink figurines with gnashing teeth and a fugitive figure beneath, cowering in an arid landscape behind almost-empty pots; in'Waiting For My Saviour' a starving child is curled in fetal position beneath, and in this, the ink figurines of the cross bear a more sinister, menacing aspect.'Salvation/Starvation' is composed of baleful small faces, and another starving child peeping out from beneath blankets. These images, the artist says, signify the atrocities and fallout of religious conflicts.
Some other pieces have a softer aspect, like the themes of confluence and unity in 'Waiting For Goodness', the motivational tones of 'You Can Make it', and the oddly comforting 'Goodbye My Son'. Others even from the titles, demonstrate the fears they tell of, like subjugation, in 'By Force', the subtle conflict of 'Till War Do us Part', and the panic of 'Hide The Recruiters Are Coming'.
This is an exhibition best appreciated in calm introspection, and regard of the stories within the stories, as the lines begin to reveal their secrets. With any hope, we will listen to these warnings from our past, and future.
The interview is below:
K: What are your thoughts about this salon art exhibition?
V: This salon art exhibition is supposed to be a conversation about war and displacement, especially what the country has gone through over time and all that. So they are just my subconscious documentations of that, and different situations. I've never really experienced war situations, but I've read about them, and these are my visual interpretations of such, but we are going through some form of crisis now, you know, most people are being displaced and all that, so for us to have an opportunity to have that kind of conversation, I decided to make it cosy, you know, like when you call it a salon. Salon for me is not a huge exhibition where speeches are given and all that, just something that helps us have a discussion
K: What are you trying to pass across with the theme, 'Crossing The Line'?
V: What I'm trying to pass across is that there's always a line that is drawn, and once you cross that line, things start falling apart. You know, like when you are kids, you draw a line- that means you are telling someone 'let's fight. If you cross this line…' So there is that moment where you are still given a chance to say, 'okay, we can resolve this situation. We are going to draw a line. If you cross this line…', and in war situations, it's usually like crossing the line, 'You have crossed my borders',' I belong here', 'This is mine'.
K: 'Crossing The Line', the actual portrait the exhibition is named after, what is it about?
V: It's about during the civil war, when people had to cross over, had to cross the line, and even the fact that they said that, 'These are the borders now, if you cross the River Niger, you are already in the land of the Biafrans', and so on. Back then was a line. So I used that, instead of saying 'crossing borders', which people have overused. 'Don't cross that line o, if you cross that line, you will see pepper o'.
K: Apart of the lines of conflict, are there other lines we cross?
V: You can also cross the line to… hunger. Imaginary lines, not physical lines, and also, what I'm doing is crossing the line visually. When you see my works… like that piece (points to 'The Orphan Of Our Wars') it's a single line that made that piece. The other entries are just a continuation of one line, so that encapsulates the whole thing.
K: You said you have not been a witness to any of these wars. How do you invoke the nostalgia of events you didn't personally witness?
V: You read a whole lot about it. I mean I'm a writer, and we read quite a lot, and so you consume a whole lot from history. People consciously don't want to confront these things. I read magazines a lot. I read… Where are we coming from now? I work in a newspaper now, and every day you hear bomb blast here, bomb blast there, and all those kind of things. You know there are orphans being created on a daily basis in those situations. It's a war situation, if you ask me. The country is kind of unsettled.
K: What are the peculiarities of your ink and paper method?
V: These are quicker ones for me because I'm usually very…busy with other things like maybe photography, so this is easier for me, like, most of those ones (points to section containing 'Goodbye My Son'), those series were done on my way from the US, so it's also a way for me to calm down my fear of flying. I may have been reading some magazines, so that's my visual reaction to that kind of situation and all those things, so, you can see a picture of probably women crying, in different parts of Africa. This is not necessarily speaking about Nigeria alone, you know, so you have to realise that. But I also don't want to simplify conflict with my art. You know it's not, oh, to create a sensation- 'you know when you talk about Africa, you talk about war'. I mean I've had exhibitions that do not have to talk about war or anything, all bright colours and everything. If you look at it the colours are very subdued because of the nature of the subject matter, so that is also part of it. You know, in Africa when you are mourning you wear black, so that is reminiscent of the whole thing and when you also look at the red framings that I used, that also signifies danger. So everything works together, kind of, when I'm doing my shows, no matter how small.
K: On the average, how long does it take to create one of your works on ink and paper?
V: Some are quicker than others- I just get consumed in it. For like three hours or four hours…
K: There are several layers, and I can see that there are small faces within the layers upon layers upon layers…
V: Exactly, because we are humans, we have different layers. I can't say I know Tolu now, because if we move from this setting to another setting, it's a different Tolu. And also, for my collectors, I don't want them to just say okay, fine. I want them to wake up one day and say wow, I didn't know he did that, or, wow, I didn't know that was there. You step away from it. For someone that is first encountering that piece now (gestures towards 'Crossing The Line') will not know that is a face when you step away from it, because when you walk in and just go there what you see is people. Then you step back and say 'oh, that's somebody looking at me whose eye has been hit and is now exploding, seeing stars'. And you know, it surprises me- I like surprising myself, too, because when I'm working at it closely and they are this small, I'm not stepping back to see what I'm doing, I'm just so engrossed in it until later, I step away from it..
K: So do you use random sheets of paper, or carry your material around with you?
V: Anything that is blank is not safe around me (laughs). If it's blank, it's not safe at all, you know? But the papers are acid-free for collectors, so that they last. So you have to take that into cognizance.
K: Is there any other preservation method you impose on the art after creating it?
V: Well, you fix it. For the pencil, you have to fix it, so that if someone wants to change the frame, it doesn't smudge it.
K: Have you ever battled creative block?
V: These ones help me. With writing, I might, but not with art. I always have a different way of expressing myself.
K: Can we talk about this sequence 'When Will My Saviour Come; Waiting For My Saviour' and 'Salvation/Starvation'..
V: That is heavy on the crisis of starvation. Most of the crises we've had have to do with religion, really. Forgiveness, religion… So when people are hungry- what are you hungry for? Are you hungry for God or are you hungry for physical food?
K: Are they an actual sequence?
V: They are separate pieces, but it's the same series.
K: Because if we follow it, it still ends in starvation..
V: Yes, because no matter what, we keep yearning for it. We keep yearning for spiritual food and physical food. So this has to do with spiritual, physical food and the crisis it creates.
K: What's the owl theme about?
V: The owl in Africa is the bird of danger. If an owl screams in the night, you know there's going to be stuff happening in the afternoon. So, most of the birds that are used are birds of prey.
K: Can we talk about the May theme of The Life House- 'remembering For Tomorrow', and things like conversations around 'Crossing the line' that help us remember what happened. What other things can or should we be doing to remember for tomorrow, to document our history?
V: We should write. Writers should write, people should think about it, social critics should talk about it so we can pretty much… learn from it. Because if we don't learn from it… (trails off.) Everybody is shouting now, because of all the crises. If it's not properly managed, it deteriorates. So people should know that it's not romantic- war is not romantic at all. And in the situation we are in right now, we need to manage things properly, so nothing should be romanticised, as far as I'm concerned. That's my take.
You can hear him speak more about his arthere, and follow him here. Many, thanks, also to Caroline Latona for assistance with the interview and pictures. Review by Tolu Oloruntoba.
Funmi Tofowomo
--The art of living and impermanence.
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