By Tajudeen Sowole
As conflict between societal
demands is contentious against individuals' right to independent expression,
there seems to be systemic submerge, which makes people feel like aliens within
their cultural space, so suggests monochrome, but painterly ink works of Austin
Uzor.
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Untitled,
ink on paper by Austin Uzor
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On display in a conventional white wall space,
till July 30, 2016, at Rele Gallery, Onikan, Ikoyi, Lagos, Uzor's work, aside
the thematic context, challenges the widely accepted aesthetics and curatorial
regiment of white or bright walls used by most galleries. Against the white walls, the artist's styles
and techniques in ink wriggle through the combined intensity of the spotlights
and emission of the walls.
Mostly in ladies portraits, depicting fashion
and beauty, the unidentified figures expose how individual, either slips into
the hole of societal confinement or get caged in self-expression while trying
to escape from communal regimentation. And quite of interest, Uzor attempts
some surreal, perhaps to expand the argument about norms and the other side of
it.
With portraits such as Pool Of Thoughts,
Adorable Allergies, War Head, Dusty Clouds, Whispers
Of Destruction, Anticipants and Untitled, Uzor places
emphasis on the head as the central point from which the energy that initiates
any change is generated. Yes, the portraits could pass as illustrations for
beauty products or services, but the intellectual depth in articulating the
argument about individual versus societal norms is also loud in the ebullient
of the images.
Further taking the subject into the realm of
metaphysics are few of the works in surreal-like such as Patches Of Light,
Food Is Ready, Mud Fences and Ashes and Rain.
Uzor notes that everyone, biologically, was
"born free until society created a system and made us live strictly by its
standards." And when he argues that for survival sake "we traded our
values and in so doing have allowed shackles built by society on our
wrists," one wonders what values an individual has pre-birth. Values -
religious, cultural or professional - are naturally integral parts of man's
extension as members of the society.
The catalogue of Visitors, interestingly, carries endorsement of Legacy Empire
Management (LEM) a new art promotion group. Recall that LEM, made its debut in
art exhibition with Olawunmi Banjo's solo Mind
Revolution at Nike Gallery, Lekki in 2014.
For Uzor, Visitors
appears like a good start in deep thematic context for an artist coming freshly
into the Lagos art space. Excerpts from his artist statement: "In this
transformation we find ourselves walking around in pain and intermittently in
unprecedented joy and controlled laughter as Fela aptly called it, ‘suffering
and smiling.’
He
insists that the norms keep getting stronger because society provides the
umbrella for ailing conscience. “Our minds are therefore bound by beliefs which
are formed of dust and so our true nature is forgotten as we have transcendentally
become visitors in our own land.
“Our true selves are non- existent and our
conscience wanders away and fades off at the dawn of realities like the morning
mist that just got ambushed by the rising sun. Society is the new landlord and
we are only but loyal tenants at his mercy. This analysis has taken a visual
and illustrative dimension as every aspect of our everyday lives has been
narrowed down to figurative expressions with Ballpoint pen drawings body of
work by me."
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