When great minds work – sub-consciously at similar spiritual realms of
artistic creation – no matter the distance between them, the results could be
embarrassingly identical.
This is what I adduced
from a brief conversation involving artist, Raqib Bashorun and a colleague,
Ozolua Uhakheme at the opening of Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya’s show on Saturday. In
fact the controversy over ‘identical’ weaving technique and alleged plagiarism
involving Bashorun and U.S.-based artist, Prof Moyo Okediji came up during the
chat.
First and foremost, it
appeared that the reaction of Bashorun at Watersworth Gallery, Lekki was exaggerated
by whoever relayed it to Okedji. Bashorun clarified that he never “created a
scene” as being circulated. He explained how he was shocked when he saw a
technique similar to his. “Any artist would react in the same way,” he
insisted.
 |
| Bashorun-Okediji |
And when my colleague and
I suggested that ideas, styles or techniques of two artists who never had
contacts in anyway could be innocently similar, Bashorun agreed. And with
maturity he said “I don’t think there is any issue of plagiarism in this case.”
I hope this should or would end the unnecessary heat seemingly created by, perhaps, a wrong relay of information.
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