By Tajudeen Sowole
Asserting
its classic taste on the Lagos art scene, Nigeria's premiere auctioneer
Arthouse Contemporary makes a debut art exhibition showing the works of one of
Africa's top photographers, George Osodi.
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Cater Bridge, Lagos, from George Osodi’s photography exhibition TransgreXion |
Via a new platform, Arthouse-The Space,
an outlet described as "exhibiting arm" of the auction house, the
auctioneer just opened a photography exhibition of Osodi's works titled TransgreXion, showing till Octobber 17,
2014 at Renault Motors , Victoria Island, Lagos.
Despite the inadequacy of headroom that
give art enough breathing space, the ceative and curatorial patterns implored
in the display of the works made up for the shortcoming of the auto specified
designed venue. More importantly,
Osodi’s TransgreXion has confirmed that Arthouse-The Space was ready for a bite
in the primary art market. At Art14 Fair,
Olympia Grand, London, U.K, early this year,
Arthouse made its entry in the non-art auction outlet with four Nigerian
artists. Works of Victor Ekpuk, Osodi, Sokari Douglas-Camp, Kainebi Osahenye, and Victoria Udondian
were exhibited under the theme R-evolution, courtesy of Arthouse-The Space.
Kavita Chellaram, the CEO of Arthouse
said the exhibition sets the tone for similar and "more to come"
using non-traditional art gallery spaces. For the contents of TransgreXion,
it's all about everything Nigeria stands for, Osodi told one of the guests
during the opening at the Renault auto space. "Wealth, poverty,
disorderliness, aggression, and more", pervading the spheres of the
country, he explained, were the focus of the exhibition.
Quite a number of the works were very
familiar, particularly the Kings, Lagos bridge and Niger Delta themes.
"The exhibition consists of about six projects," Osodi stated. And
some of the works, as familiar as they appeared, "are in editions."
His capture of Carter Bridge, one of the accesses that link Mainland and Island
of Lagos, is perhaps one of the works with many editions, having appeared on
the art scene in Lagos previously.
On the Nigeria's paradox theme of TransgreXion, Osodi questioned, for
example, the activities of young Nigerians who plunge the environment into
degradation under the guise of resource control. "It is disturbing how
some young people devastate our environment through illegal bunkering and
refineries." He explained that "this is part of the aggression",
which the theme of the exhibition addresses. On violation of the environment,
particularly in the oil rich Niger Delta, one thought the multi national
companies operating in the region are the real alleged culprits. "Yes, the
devastation caused by some of the big oil companies are well known,” he agreed.
But hidden from the larger public, he Osodi argued, “is the negative impact of
the illegal refineries and bunkering on the environment."
Still on the good, bad and the
unpleasant trajectory of Nigeria, the photographer's capture of a filtered
Carter Bridge night picture explains the return of decency. "The Carter
Bridge I used to know several decades back was usually well-lit until it went
so bad." The immediate sorry past was best imagined, and perhaps
non-photographic friendly. But as Osodi's lens glorifies the glittering side of
the bridge, the other unpleasant aspect of escapes the photographer’s
capturing, under the beautiful amber light. Paradoxically, the ugly story of
Carter Bridge exists daily, from morning till dusk as commercial motorcycles
known in the local parlance as okada go
against the flow of vehicular traffic. In fact, if Osodi's wide angle lens has
gotten close enough, it might have picked some of the above the law okada riders who have been causing road
crashes on the bridge regularly.
More explicit, Lagos represents the
colourful image of Nigeria so suggests a high angle shot of the Eyo masquerade festival, the city's face
of cultural and traditional identity. The work, which is titled Eyo Oniko has the yellow hats of the
masquerades connived with the brownish-yellow of the plant costumes, dominating
the supposedly white identity of Eyo..
With this shot, Osodi steps up his game, capturing Eyo in rare composite.
In the royal theme comes a revisit of
his show in the U.K last year where he showed Nigerian Monarchs at Bermondsey Project, London. For TransgrXion, it's a 21 pieces in
miniatures of Obas, Emirs from south- west and the north as well as kings from
south-south and the south-east of the country.
Born in 1974, Osodi whose media
experience include stints with the Associated
Press, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Der Spiegel of Germany, USA
Today and The Guardian of London
had his most profound solo exhibition Paradise
Lost in Nigeria at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos in 2008 as part
of the CCA's trilogy exhibitions. And having done quite a lot of works on the
volatile Niger Delta, he produced a book title Delta Nigeria – The Rape of Paradise. It was a sequel to his 2011
project, Oil Rich Niger Delta.
Some of his past exhibitions include Oil Boom Delta Burns at International
Slavery Museum, Liverpool, U.K (2012); We
Face Forward at The Manchester Museum, Manchester (2012), among other shows
abroad.
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