Oracle Quest 6
Penetrating the Depths of Time
Bruce Onobrakpeya's Oracle XVII
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Abstract
The time is a thousand years from now. The Oracle series of mixed media works by the 20th-21st century artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, first presented in the 2015 book Onobrakpeya: Masks of the Flaming Arrows, and adapting the visual structure of the opon ifa, a central symbolic and functional form of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge and divination, have long been missing, rumoured to have been scattered to unknown locations across the world in order to prevent the arcane knowledge they embody being available to any one person,so dangerous these perceptions are whispered to be.
Someone, however, determines to track them down and unearth the mysterious cognition they enable.. This series, combining art criticism, art theory and broader philosophical reflection within the compressed evocative and narrative power of the short story and rich in detailed visual and verbal engagements with each element in each of these works of art, represent this person's account of the quest.
Reflection on perception and communication at an archaeological excavation in Iran.
The lift moved swiftly into the depths of the earth, having been constructed to enable entry into and exit from the various zones reached in the extensive archaeological excavation in the Iranian city of Sari a friend on the exploratory team had called my attention to.
A find at the deepest level reached so far reminded him of my long search for a series of works by the adept of Agbarha-Otor, the town in Nigeria where the artist Bruce Onobrakpeya had been born and with which he remained associated for most of his life.
Reaching our destination, we entered a chamber carved into the earth, on its upper surface an inscription in Mazanderani, a language of the region, translated by my friend as "On Earth we live, to Earth we return", the motto of a group dedicated to the earth, who had created this cavern deep within the soil in recognition of their devotion.
Bruce Onobrakpeya's Oracle XVII
My friend pointed me to a square hanging on the back wall, surrounded by letters he rendered as stating "World to Market, Market to Earth", indicating another conception of the fellowship, a description of the world as a marketplace of commerce in possibilities of existence, the fecundity and stability of earth enabling the continuation and dynamism of all terrestrial species, an idea embodied in a mythic matriarch residing in the earth, under a market, at the centre of the space formed by four calabashes, each bearing an element evocative of a central aspect of human life- charcoal powder for humanity's use of energy sources across time, from the most elementary to the most sophisticated, mud, indicating the meeting of earth and water in representing the two major forms of terrestrial matter, white chalk dust, its motes suggesting the luminosity of consciousness as it aggregates through sentient beings populating the earth, red camwood dust, blood and the fire of life.
Beautiful configurations
Weighted by the gravitas of these ideas, deeply intrigued by their concentration of complexity in simplicity of images, I focused attention on the square framed by the inscriptions communicating those ideas. This was clearly Oracle XVII, as I confirmed from scholarship on the artefacts represented by Onobrakpeya's series. A dance of lines dominates the background. The vertical inscriptions of odu ifa, the semiotic patterns of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge, traditionally inscribed on the opon ifa, the divination platform which inspired Onobrakpeya's Oracle creations, were thereby transposed into an almost musical rendition, their melodious beauty more an outcome of spontaneous rhythm than a deliberative structural harmony. The two hundred and fifty-six permutations of the possibilities of existence represented by the odu ifa are thus dissolved into their dynamic essences, as it were, evoking their dramatizations of the rhythm of being and becoming, of change within stability.
As I face Oracle XVII, I see myself sitting on the point of intersection of the various conjunctions in time and space that constitute my present, my past and my future, the threads underlying these transformations represented by the elegant intertwinings of Oracle XVII.
Lyricisms of time
"What am I doing with my life?" I am compelled to ask myself as I view these delicate configurations in terms of my existential matrix. The pulse of life, steadiness of mind and vigour of body convince me I am still very much in the struggle, but like the octopus scheming its way out of confinement, its large many tentacled form squirming free in arcane genius, I need to strategize in order to reach a position of maximum opportunity.
Oracle XVII transcends my efforts to give account of it. I gaze and gaze at it, held by the balance between the absolute simplicity of its surface and the wealth of diverse forms hanging in front of that surface of swimming lines. I have assimilated the symbolic significance of a significant number of these objects, have reflected on the implications of their clustering, and have given account of these in my writings on the Oracle forms I have encountered so far, but the compulsion of the work remains inexhaustible, its unique beauty beyond the grip of verbal equivalents of its visual cues and their enigmatic power, a transcending force that is the unique prerogative of aesthetic forms, of the beautiful in nature and human creation, regardless of the character of that beauty.
Response by Eze Chimalio to the Facebook posting-
"This like the other writings on Studying Bruce Onobrakpeya is definitely turning into to a companion and essentail guide to the art of the man. Sublime and evocative. For 'Penetrating the Depths of Time : Bruce Onobrakpeya's Oracle XVII' Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju puts on a vibrant coat of arms that meanders across a personal story that has a centre-point that is refelctive of Oracle XVII.
It is important to note that the writer is in awe of the object's intrinsic and elusive magic and in some way fails to find words to express the deepest meanings he has found within it.
But, that in itself does not distract from the message he receives and perceives from it. Here, transcendence takes a more human form that is normal, healthy and cultured."
Eze Chimalio This like the other writings on Studying Bruce Onobrakpeya is defintiely turning into to a companion and essentail guide to the art of the man. Sublime and evocative. For 'Penetrating the Depths of Time : Bruce Onobrakpeya's Oracle XVII' Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju puts on a vibrant coat of arms that meanders across a personal story that has a centre-point that is refelctive of Oracle XVII. It is important to note that the writer is in awe of the object's intrinsic and elusive magic and in some way fails to find words to express the deepeest meanings he has found within it. But, that in tiself does not distract from the message he recieves and perceives from it. Here, transcendence takes a more human form that is normal, healthy and cultured.
__,_._,___
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQUsAwv69fODPJUSkDBu83y%2BrW9acCLzj9%2B2zSR1KDpvA%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment