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The 12 finalists of 2013 African Artists Foundation/Nigerian Breweries Plc-organised National Art Competition during a Retreat in Lagos…recently. PHOTO: C/O AAF. |
By
Tajudenn Sowolea
With
the introduction of art making process, as a format in the yearly African
Artists’ Foundation {AAF}-organised National Art Competition, Nigerian art
space may soon be populated with artists engaging in ‘contemporary’
practice.
Currently
in its sixth edition, the process of creating art was brought into the
competition from 2011. The format compels each participant to prepare a proposal
on the concept of the art the individual is presenting, hence offering the
artists opportunity to strengthen the creation of their work via intensive
research. Critics keep noting that lack of depth in the trajectory of most
Nigerian artists’ concepts has become a recurring and contentious issues.
And because the
Nigerian art scene is largely patronised by conservative art connoisseurs,
artists who have established their names on traditional foundation would hardly
fit into the format of AAF’s new approach. The conservative characteristics of
Nigerian art space perhaps made the first three editions of the AAF’s art
competition attractive to the large spectrum of artists from the regular
painting or mixed media on canvas/board as well as sculptures forms. In fact,
established artists such as Tola Wewe, Segun Aiyesan, Gbolahan Ayoola, Emeka
Ogboh, Gerald Chukwuma, among others, participated in the early edition, Unbeatable Nigerian Spirits {2008], for
example.
It was quite curious that big names in art
thinned out from the completion, even when the prizes got higher, from the
previous zero-prize situations. The first edition had no prize money attached;
but second year started monetary award with N750, 000 for each winner in four
categories. At the grand finale of the 2010, edition, there was a drastic
change in the contents of finalists: a shift from the traditional form of art.
Between then and the last two editions of the national art comeptition, lovers
of the much-envisaged ‘contemporary’ art seemed to have found additional relief
to the efforts of Bisi Silva-led Centre for Contemporary Art {CCA}, Yaba, Lagos
–a centre that has been filing the gap of non-traditional contents since 2008.
To answer this question, the 12 finalists had
gathered at Nimbus Gallery for a five-day “Retreat”, which involved
presentation of individual participant’s proposals. The works are to be juried
during the grand finale scheduled for November this year at Art21, Victoria
Island, Lagos.
About three months ahead of the grand finale
– as the finalists are now in their different studios across the country
creating the works from the proposals presented at the Lagos retreat – a
virtual extension of the Nimbus gathering continues. “Finalists are sending in
their sketches as each artist progresses in the studio”, the creative director
at AAF, Alafuro Sikoki-Coleman enthuses during a chat with her guest inside the
organization’s art gallery few days ago. The images representing the
progression of each artist towards the final art piece, she explains are posted
online www.nationalartcompetition.org as a medium of getting the general public
involved in tracking the process of creating art. “It’s a kind of reality
thing, but in this case done online”. She notes that art has “evolved” beyond”
the personality of those who create the works, but “now as a conversation”.
Since the competition started with the
process of creating art, entries, she discloses, has been on the increase.
While it may be true that more entries have been recorded, the category or
status of participants suggests that established artists are no longer
interested in the competition. Is the
introduction of process of art making like a deliberate way of excluding the
big artists? The emphasis on process of creating art, she argues, is to give
everybody opportunity. “It gives everybody, even a ‘Mr Nobody’ to apply,
perhaps wins a prize too”, Sikoki-Coleman, who was the second place winner of
the 2012 edition argues.
Having got the finalists bonded together
during the retreat, and now posting their thumb-nails or sketches online, it s
not unlikely to have identical works presented at the grand finale. She
disagrees, explaining that as the artists have bonded together, they also
realise “what is at stake”.
The 2013 finalists, largely made up of young
artists just stepping into the challenges of professionalism include Karimah Ashadu, Alayande, Ayanwale, Chidinma
Nnorom Chinke, Mary Edoga Chioma, Brigitte Sésu Tilley-Gyado, Taiye Idahor,
Erasmus Onyishi, Olanrewaju Tejuoso, Felicia Okpara Tochukwu and Victoria Udondian.
Others working as duo are Chuka Ejorh and Olamide Udo-Udoma; Halima
Abubakar and Zemaye Okediji.
First
Prize is worth N2 million Naira, a solo art exhibition at AAF Gallery, Ikoyi,
and a 3-night stay at Hilton Hotel Dubai, UAE. The next two prizes simply
described as “Winners”, to be adjudged based on “Outstanding Concept” and
“Outstanding Production” gets N1 million naira each.
Indeed, the contents of the grand finale,
every year, keep pushing contemporary practice further within the Avant-garde
context. But like some works in the non-regular or traditional genre,
preservation has always been a challenge. Either in installation, mixed media
or wall-mounted, some of the works in the so-called ‘contemporary’ space are,
to say the least, vulnerable to easy extinction. Such works are even more
fragile, particularly in climes such as Nigeria where galleries hardly accept
to show them, and museums of contemporary art does not exist to come to their
rescue.
For example, the overall winning work at last
year’s competition Chinenye
Miriam Emelogu’s Human
Hive
comes to mind. A sprawling installation, on display inside the multipurpose
hall of Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, it actually took nearly a quartre
of the entire exhibition space just as the fragility of its aesthetic was even
more pronounced In fact spreading it on the floor appeared like a compromised
option given the massive size.
Apparently a museum piece, but appreciating Emelogu’s work actually
ended with the grand finale. Similarly, another museum piece was the winner of
the grand prize of the 2011 edition – under the theme Documenting
Changes In Our Nation -Though not a sprawling kind, the
installation, which was jointly produced by Uche Uzorka and Chike Obeago had
components that did not appear like what could be precisely re-assembled over
and over again. Not even a site-specific installation, but subsequent
presentations could shift from the original look.
And if art competition goes beyond the
primordial or just winning prizes, how are the organisers, AAF and its sole
sponsors of seven years, Nigeria Breweries {NB} Plc planning to preserve the
prize-winning works, more so that such works are hardly collectors’
tastes?
Appreciation and documentation, Sikoki-Coleman argues, goes beyond the physical mounting of such works. “They are documented and displayed online” or in soft copies.
For a project sponsored by one of Nigeria’s
leading corporate groups, NB Plc, a gallery or contemporary museum for the
products of the national competition should not be so difficult to be structured
into the entire package as the art competition appears to have come to stay as
a major event the art calendar of Nigerian art.
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