Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Victor Ekpuk and Rembrandt: Art as Philosophy

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Dami Toye Noble attempt. Good and Good.

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju thanks Dami Toye. all suggestions would be appreciated.

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Dami Toye Do for Ekpuk what the West had done for Rembrandt. Visual Art as rich as the creations of those two notable figures, are cryptic . Both have said so much with lines, color and other elements of art to create a "compressed entity", a distilled form of the vast realities they intend to portray or convey,however not everyone is learned on the rules of engaging such works or what interpretation to subject them to for proper appreciation. It is through textual analysis that most profound pieces can enter even through the lowest door of consciousness so that those who look may see and those who see may feel the essence of it. Everything is possible. If need be juxtapose their works for achieving the goal.

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Dami Toye wow!

Powerfully aggressively put with ferocious erudition.

I pray I am able to meditate on these inspiring lines and hopefully quote them.

As it is though, i already a have major project on Ekpuk linked below, so the Ekpuk initiative on my part has begun.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/oluwatoyin-vincent-adepoju/nsibidiekpuk-philosophy-and-mysticism-research-and-publication-project/10153389283379103/

A print book has also come out on Ekpuk, to which I contributed and which I will link below from Ekpuk's wall.

What I'm trying to do with this project is expand my work on Ekpuk by studying and possibly working with scholars in related theoretical interests, within and beyond African Studies.

The four major scholars I have in mind are Allena Retova at SOAS, on account of her developing the idea that African philosophy expands the boundaries of philosophy by insisting on the possibility of doing philosophy in ways different from the prevailing trend in the West, one of these approaches being philosophy as developed through visual and performative art.

Another is Hanneke Grootenboer at Oxford who studies art as philosophy, her cultural focus being Dutch art.

Another is Rowland Abiodun, Ekpuk's former academic guide at OAU,beceause of his work on relationships between being, 'iwa', in Yoruba thought and 'oro' discourse, in Yoruba thought, , discourse'- structured expression- ' being the scholar Pius Adesanmi's translation of the Yoruba term 'oro'.

Another is Babatunde Lawal on account of his work on Yoruba theory of perception in relation to 'aworan' the act of gazing or looking', in terms of forms of perception, from the concrete to the abstract.

The fourth is Caroline van Eck, in terms of her interest in the imaginative animation of art, people treating art as if it is alive, and the relationship between this attitude and philosophical strategies.

How may these research interests relate to Ekpuk's work and why do I see them as a potential way of developing his adaptation of Nsibidi in a way that may illuminate Rembrandt's art beyond the current scope of its understanding?

First, my key interest is in the ideas that conjunct all these scholars- the relationship between art and philosophy, within which is the idea of art as philosophy, art as a means of knowing, both imaginative and critical, intuitive and yet intergratable within a rational framework.

I am also very keen on exploring how the ideational potential of non-Western art, particularly African and Asian art, can illuminate various ways of arriving at knowledge, a subject richly discussed by Toyin Falola's " Ritual Archives", my essay on which is accessible on Facebook and will also be published in the Yoruba Studies Review.

Within this framework, what does Ekpuk's exploration inspired by Nsibidi bring to theories of art?

I have achieved something similar in relation to Yoruba origin Ifa hermeneutics in dialogue with autobiographical theory in illuminating Dutch-French artist Vincent van Gogh's letters and art.

Can something similar be done for the Nsibidi/Ekpuk conjunction in relation to art beyond the Nsibidi cultural context?

Can the expressive scope of Nsibidi, integrating three dimensional object structuring in space, in terms of the symbolism of how they are placed, the symbolism of human body movements, speech and graphic expression communicate something about a view of the robustness required to communicate meaning and interpret this communication?

Can the transition between concrete and abstract symbolism in Nisibidi assist one in appreciating better the scope of artistic communication?

How helpful would Ekpuk's transitions between the concrete and the abstract, in developing his own visual language s inspired by Nisibidi illuminate, for example, a realist artist like Rembrandt?

May Rembrandt's use of light and shadow in relation to rich figurative modeling of the human form in himself portraits suggest such a balance of concreteness and abstraction?

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

17 February 2016

Nsibidi/Ekpuk Philosophy and Mysticism : Research and Publication Project

Project Purpose, Rationale and Organizing Concepts

Philosophy, Mysticism, Esotericism

An exploration of the philosophical and mystical potential of the art of Victor Ekpuk and the Nsibidi symbolism of the Ekpe esoteric order of South-South and South-East Nigeria and South-West Cameroon which inspires his work, in the context of Africana and global esotericism.

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Dami Toye Thanks for this.

On Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 9:33 AM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <tvoluade@gmail.com> wrote:

To What Degree Can One Compare the Art of the Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk and that of the Dutch Master Rembrandt van Rijn?

I am considering the possibility of comparing Rembrandt's iconic self portraits with Ekpuk's portraits of the human self.

Rembrandt's self portraits demonstrate a profoundly introspective use of shape and colour. Ekpuk's images of the self evoke introspection, suggestive of his transformation of Nigerian cross-River Nsibidi semiotics.

Is it possible to discuss Rembrandt in terms of Nsbidi as reworked by Ekpuk?

What could be learned by such an effort?

What new understanding may emerge from such an initiative?

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