A-ARTs: Wordsmithing survival symbolism through stone embossment

Pointillism in stones by Imaobong Uko.

By Tajudeen Sowole

In capturing the strength of stones, artist, Imaobong Uko applies it as symbolism of the various trials that people face in all human endeavors. The artist creates a technique of wordsmithing with design imageries carved from an assemblage of stones that speaks more than thematic expression. From the depth of the soil, artist, Imaobong Uko excavates the strength of stones as symbolism for whatever travails people go through, across human endeavours. With design imageries carved from assemblage of stones, the artist creates a technique of wordsmithing that speaks more than thematic expression.

Through graphic form, Uko appropriates the link between human and nature with each word or letter. The work on display is focused on the theme of A Solid Mindset, and each piece is a pointillism journey through stones. The stones become part of a story that either inspires or challenges the viewer's thoughts about life's journey as its crude and polished pieces come together.

There are nine pieces in total, each one is accompanied by the combative capital letter and letters, which implies that the journey of stones before contacts with man goes through diversity of weather and time. They are transformed from raw to refined, glazed or polished, and the stones take on sculptural textures, each one having something in common with every human experience of life.

For every stone, raw or refined, that has survived till Uko’s artistic journey comes along, there are quite a number of others that have been crushed into sand or powder forms. It is the symbolism for human that one is alive from birth till date when wind of fate has terminated millions of lives during same period.

And the symbolism is almost endless. Like some stones that survived endurance going through different stages of weather, both natural and human interference, people too achieved whatever success being enjoyed after weathering the storms of many obstacles. Sections of the artist’s work spell out the theme in three words: ‘LIFE IS HARD’, emphasizing the rigor of survival across echelons of human endeavor. Another part of the works says: ‘YOU NEED TO HAVE A STRONG MINDSET’

When using an embossing design as an artistic expression, the postures of the letters and words, all in caps radiate a “two sides of a coin” kind of message. The all-caps letters and words do have the boldness that defines the theme, but they also have a certain level of aggressiveness. How does the inherent aggression of the all-caps text impact the effective communication of the theme?

There’s a reason why headlines of news medium traditionally prefer sentence case or lowercase letters and words, rather than all-caps. All-capital letters or words are generally considered unattractive to the reader’s sensitivity. Uko’s wordsmithing technique in embossment news medium or graphics design pieces? But locating her works comes with the challenge of context and also opens up space for intellectual discourse.

Any graphic design in words or sentence arrangement is a branch or family of dissemination of information. Importantly, Uko’s ‘LIFE IS HARD’ and ‘YOU NEED A SOLID MINDSET’ are the headings or headlines for the artist’s thoughts on the metaphor of stone and human’s journey of survival. The fierce all-caps letters and words need a breath of softness over the whole work. The non-shouting colors of the background and the mix of natural and refined pieces of stones that seem to radiate softness over the entire composite are coming for the rescue mission.

The medium of expression of the works, stone, already imposes hardness in the perception of the digestion of the theme. It takes a bit of academic analysis to bring the embossed letters and words down to sentence case, but make them bold enough to hold their visual strength. Letters are also effectively used for communication within the context of visual culture, not only in literary works in this contemporary era.

From 'YOU NEED A SOLID MINDSET' stone piece by Imaobong Uko.

Uko’s wordsmithing with stones embossed with boldness is a design piece in the genre of graphics, infusing freshness into the world of creative adventure.