By Tajudeen Sowole
As much as digital race appears
like a victory over information restrictions, artist Rom Isichei's visual
prediction tracks how flood of technologies is forming a sea of addiction in
which consumers of info-tech devices swim, sub-consciously. Also straying into
Isichei's rampaging palette strokes is crisis of identity energised by ladies'
search for the elusive perfect beauty.
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weChat as weDine, a collage painting by Rom isichei
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As far as walls in Lagos art outlets would
recollect, Isichei's elaborate consumption of space always takes no prisoners. Being
the artist’s first solo art exhibition since a his MA Fine Art programme at
Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, U.K, two years ago, quite a lot of
his followers can't wait to see the artist's new texture of canvas. In April,
he had a two-artists show Recent Works of Rom Isichei
and Kainebi Osahenye at Temple Muse, Victoria Island, Lagos. An insight
into what his post-Chelsea experience would bring was seen in one of the works,
Deification iv on display at Temple
Muse.
Ahead
of the exhibition, his only guest
of this mid-day asks: The central theme Someday Is Today sounds anti-procrastination,
isn't it? After about three minutes walk from his residence to the studio, the
answer to the question sprouts on the walls in paintings and metal collages,
drawings and installations that call attention to what has become people's
addiction to handsets and other digital gadgets.
“Digital technology – as subsumed in the mass
media is one of many compelling evidences of our conquest over subjugation and
dictatorship,” Isichei states. But he also warns of eroding “reality” in the
new face of ‘conquest.’
Mounted on the walls of the ground and top
floors of the studio, waiting to be moved for the exhibition space, the works
radiate a new period in the career of Isichei. If a gallery space, expectedly
enhances display of works - given an added curatorial contents - then a visit
to Isichei's studio inside the quietness of Ilupeju, on the mainland axis of Lagos,
pre-empts what to expect when the works are moved to National Museum gallery.
The concept of the exhibition, Isichei tells
his guest, draws from the famous assertion of pop art legend, Andy Warhol that
"in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." In whatever
relativity context one looks at the "future", digital age has clearly
fastened the prediction of the American artist and other thinkers of similar
thoughts. This much, Isichei captures in works such as The Geek and the Technophobe, Youth
Code, weChat as weDine and Someday is Today, Lets Save the Night, among others.
Never has technology been so embraced across
generations as the handset phone phenomenon is inflicting addiction on the
human race currently, a trend that has been ongoing in the past one and half
decades or more. Isichei captures people's constant clinging onto digital hand
gadgets at non-formal and public places, even into privacy of homes at dinning
table. And when it comes to aiding educational knowledge, over-application or
abuse of digital technology threatens natural creativity, so Isichei argues.
A metal collage The Greek and the Technophobe, which the artist expresses in
flattened soft cans on board recalls the early periods of info tech when a
section of conservative people clung passionately onto the analogue ways; refused
to accept the new age info tech. But the speed of the irresistible digital, as
highlighted in the metal collage explains the reality of a new communication
age.
If you
were in love with the artist's high textured impasto of which his work gained
prominence among collectors, over the years, the new look of Isichei's canvas
might generate curious interest as it seems to add a fresh painting technique
to his oeuvre. In a sharp contrast from the familiar thickened canvas of the artist
come paintings such as Youth Code, Put on A Happy Face, weChat as weDine, and Sunshine State of Mind among others.
These works bring collages in coalescence with print cuttings to enhance bold
application of colours. In fact, Isichei's technique of matting textile on canvas
exhales a fresh breath, keeping distance from the similarities among many
Nigerian artists’ trend of fabric on canvas. In fact, Isichei’s the blend of
fabric with colours is as natural as coming directly from paint tubes onto the
palette. A rich example of such work is Youth Code, painting of eight
young adults, nearly each clinging to a digital device, a the artist’s painting
tool on the wears of select figures enriches the natural extension of the
toning.
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| One of the ‘Mutations and the Gilded Apostle’ panels by Isichei |
Stressing
the handset addiction as well as new look of Isichei's collage painting are weChart
as weDine, a family at the dining; the title piece, Someday is Today,
Let's Save Tonight, a couple in selfie; Put
on Happy Face, ladies in facial checks and As Seen in ‘Vogue’ some fashionistas show-off.
In
appropriating the 'Now' context of the theme, Isichei also affords today's art
lovers the benefit of what could have been the future of his canvas should any
critic chose to see through a crystal ball. In fact, the gap in intensity of
creativity between his impasto textured canvas of few years ago and the collage
technique currently being used, could accommodate two periods in
progression. Indeed, time and life are
too short - running on a fast lane - such that it could be shortsighted to wait
for someday, so suggests the new texture of the artist's technique.
However, in a metal collage, The Past Is
Still Present, he challenges the claim or perception that technologies in
progressions - pre-digital and digital - have advanced the world in the real
sense. "Despite the technological achievement we claim to have recorded in
the worl, decay is still everywhere in our social and economic” spaces, Isichei
argues. He stresses this much in a metal collage of rustic corrugated metal
sheet and painting. "The decay in
the society is represented by the old metal sheet."
Given the increasing level of frantic search
for perfection in ladies look, particularly among black and colour women, a set
of portraits titled Mutations and the Gilded Apostle, speak volume about how not to lose natural
identity. In 18 panels with each having a face in sculptured mask on a
painting, the set of portraits panels expose ladies' identity crisis in the
beauty parlance. The artist notes that averagely, most "ladies have a
different look of make up for almost everyday of the week." Natural looks,
he argues, " disappears" in ladies' efforts to keep searching for
perfection of the facial beauty. From
Brazilian to Indian synthetic hairs, being regularly applied by increasing
population of African ladies who patronize
the products, for example, a sense of self-esteem is being eroded.
From a total of 30 pieces for the exhibition,
paper works in drawings which take quite a chunk are not exactly far from the
painting and metal collages in concept. But two installations, I Have
Nothing To Declare, But My ARTitude and I Am My Choices are too
distinct from the entire exhibits such that they (the installations) appear
like some alien intrusions into the display of works. The installations, which
appear more like drawings gain much of its incendiary contents adapting images
of symbolic expressions to make some salient statements. In black and white,
the installations would make great design piece for prints in textile.
In 2011, Iisichei had his last solo art
exhibition, Quiet Spaces at Nike Art
Gallery, Lekki, Lagos, a show that used women as a fulcrum in articulating the
misplaced priority of the society. Some of his previous solo exhibitions
include Traces of Being (2009), at Terra Kulture, Lagos; in
2007, Chronicles, National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, and
Eyes of the Beholder (2005), Goethe Institut, Lagos.
2007, Chronicles, National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, and
Eyes of the Beholder (2005), Goethe Institut, Lagos.
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