– AKEEM LASISI writes on the rare works on display at ‘Beauty and the Machine’, Bruce Onobrakpeya’s exhibition ending at Freedom Park, Lagos, tomorrow, Friday
Lovers of works of master artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya, have an opportunity to behold and get the best of his recent offerings in Lagos tomorrow (Friday), when an exhibition he is holding will end at Freedom Park.
Many art addicts may have seen and cuddled Onobrackpeya’s works at different places and exhibitions, but they are in for a pleasant puzzle, if not shock, as far as the exhibition titled ‘Beauty and the Machine’ is concerned. With Kennii Ekundayo as curator, it is described as an exhibition of works achieved from discarded and recycled materials that have been assembled to become components of an artistic productions. It is featuring 35 works.
The surprise is that while the works generally bear the artist’s tested signature, the project particularly features an assemblage of cross-generation, cross-media and awe-inspiring one that the artist titles ‘Aro Eghwere’ (Hunter’s Muse).
The artwork showcases a legendary hunter complete with his emblems in terms of tools, relics of animals he has captured, custom and spiritual/magical powers that define him as a legend.
Standing before the sprawling effigy is like standing before a representation of the lifetime of dreams, talent, power, persistence, victories, fulfilment and a proclamation of all of these.
Anyone with a deep sense of appreciation will therefore see Onabrackpeya in the great hunter he presents in the work. Interesting, the exhibition marks his 60th year in the industry.
The work, therefore, further makes sense as an exhibition of stewardship in the coven of paints, brush and canvas.
It is also significant as a display of regeneration on the part of Onobrackpeya. This is predicated on the fact that he confesses that the style he adopts in the production of the exhibits, which largely rest on the use of recycled materials, was inspired by younger artists. What he, however, succeeded in doing is that within the little time he played around the novel pattern, he has arguably overtaken many of the young ones he met in it. The works very much attest to this.
He says concerning the exhibition: “For some time now, some of my individually finished artworks have been displayed together and some may have been joined mechanically to form panels. These pieces so joined or displayed together are usually similar in materials, composition, style and theme.
“These new sets of panels have increased in number, therefore become necessary to put them in class by appropriate definition. So I call them Onobrak Combines, borrowing the latter word from the word use to describe works by American artist Rauschenburg. By extension the term Onabrak Combines will include my installations, which very often have interchangeable objects.
“I am always fascinated by objects arranged as part of traditional shrines, fabrics, jewelries, or amulets; I have developed “New Still Life” compositions, which have now grown to become a series. I call these series oracle because the objects are always assembled on circular or rectangular platforms like Yoruba divination bowl called Opon Ifa.
“The name oracle has nothing to do with fetish, although it connotes aesthetic charm, magic, or manna that the combination of objects radiates. That childhood clock experience had lain buried in my mind for many years until it was awakened by a younger artist called Olu Amoda who introduced me to metal welding during the early sessions of the Harmattan Workshop series in Agbarha-Otor.
M”y interest in engine scrap was again rekindled in the 2018 Harmattan Workshop session when I worked with Muarina Akeem and John Adenle. In group work, we combined plastic and metal scraps to create whimsical animals. Thereafter I found myself creating open air gigantic sculptures.”
The curator also notes the significance of producing new gems from discarded objects. According to her, it not only bespeaks the power of the mind (as of the artist) to renew itself, it is also a commendable phenomenon in man’s efforts to cope with climate change.
Ekundayo notes, “The exhibition aims to lend voice to the clamor on the importance of recycling as a means of climate change control and environmental sanitation, visible in the incorporation of these erstwhile worthless materials into embodying art, which not only improves upon the aesthetics of the environment but is also beneficial to the economy’s revenue growth.
‘Chief Warder’ of Freedom Park, Theo Lawson, gives the background to the exhibition and traces the genesis of his love for Onobrakpeya’s works. According to him, he is not only becoming more creative with aging, he is also the ‘hardest working and most prolific artist I know.”
The revered General Manager of the park, Ms. Iyabo Aboaba, is also instrumental to the success of the exhibition.
