A-ARTs: Art of interrogating homeware utilitarian effect

'Untitled Chair' (mixed media furniture, 88 x 40 x 50 cm, dated 2024) by Stef

By Tajudeen Sowole

WHOEVER wishes to engage in critical study of the relatively close link between surreal and conceptual contents has something to chew in the works of artist, Oluwasemilore Stephen Ogunsanya, who chooses to be simply known as ‘Stef’.

Between surrealism, conceptual art and their ‘cousin’ abstract, the depth of visual expression could make artist struggle for articulation, depending on the individual’s handling of the subject in focus. In Stef’s expressions of surreal and pseudo-conceptual art combined, the thematic contexts become a battle ground between his thoughts and the style of communicating them through the choices of the forms applied. Could such struggle for attention between the themes and the visual representation become one of the artist’s strengths?

In two homeware objects, Stef extracts issues that are either contentious or of populist shades that take a second look at people’s relationship with their daily domestic routines. From creativity perspective, the artist interrogates physiotherapy connection between daily human activities and mental or psychological impact in the two works under review.

As one further engages Stef’s many works, the character of an artist with classic expression unfolds, so suggests a performance-like piece such as Untitled Chair. Everyday domestic routine turns functionality into a depth of intellectual engagement with Stef’s depiction of some spiritual connection between the parts of the human body and homewares, in this case, a piece of furniture.

With Untitled Chair, Stef, perhaps, subconsciously pays tribute to the 20th century controversial artist, Marcel Duchamp whose works of functional objects were strips of their utilitarian purpose. For Stef, the elevation of the intellectual contents crosses into the relationship of a chair with some other uncommon personal experience of the user.

Stef brings his architectural skills into competing with the other contents of Untitled Chair, coalescing the complexity between surreal and conceptual form, as well as escalating the blurring line that exists in design and art. More pivotal to the critical appreciation of the concept is how the artist applies his personality in the way his body relates to everyday usage of a chair. From the backrest of the chair, moulded to the shape of human spine, to some patterns of the artist’s knuckles embedded into the composite, Stef creates an art piece stranded between conceptual and surreal, but laced in design texture.

Some concepts in visual culture are better appreciated beyond painting, drawing or sculptural forms. For Stef’s Untitled Chair, the depth of intellectual contents in three-dimensional form attempts to engage a viewer through the thoughts of the artist. However, adding a performance edition of Untitled Chair, in the future, would be more explicit, better appreciated as the whole concept becomes participatory with viewers.

Stef is not done with dragging his personal experience of everyday domestic tools into artistic space, as exposes by another of his works, Thumbprint Mirror, which is also of mixed-media furniture. Everyone who uses mirror, daily, knows the role of the object in shaping people’s perception of self-esteem. And when the artist also brings his personal thumbprinting into the entire composite, creating a thumbprint mirror, art becomes a medium of measuring depth of intellectualism.

Between commercial and critical appreciation, Stef’s art floats in between in some of his works. For Untitled Chair and Thumbprint Mirror, there is no space to conflate critical and commercial appreciation. The two works, obviously belong in the critical wing of visual culture appreciation.

Stef’s journey through critical space cannot be separated from his background in Architecture with MA in Design. Another of his work, ‘I Touched Your Grace’, within the design and art texture was recently shown at Hartlepool Gallery, U.K. The piece exposes an artist whose passion for graphic contents is stronger than core love for fine art expression. In the 21st century art environment that’s commercially driven, artist like Stef has the potential to expand alternative or conceptual art to enrich the visual culture space.

Line, light through digital brushings-of Oseh