top
to bottom
OSI AUDU, Self-Portrait: Ogoni Head, 2017 OSI AUDU, Self-Portrait: Yoruba Head, 2017 OSI AUDU, Self-Potrait: Red Cap Chief--Etsako Head, 2016 |
||
I explore the light sheen of
graphite, the matte, light-absorbing quality of
black pastel, the white of paper and canvas, and
interactions of color, investigating how all of
these optical attributes can suggest something
evocative about the shape of the head. I am
interested in the dualism of form and void, and the
ontological relation between the tangible and
intangible, something and nothing, light and dark,
body and mind, the dual nature of being - the self
in portraits. My work is inspired by the
abstract geometric possibilities I see in African art
and culture, thus it is a formal and conceptual
dialogue between the historic and the contemporary. The development of a sense of self is a very complex process, more so in our increasingly global age, in which the boundaries between race, nationality, gender and sexuality are becoming more blurred. I am interested in issues of identity, those rooted in my cultural experiences growing up in Nigeria, as well as broader metaphysical, scientific, and social concepts of the self. There is a Yoruba thought that consciousness, referred to as the “head,” has both a physical dimension called the “outer head” and a non-physical one: “the inner head.” The visual implications of concepts like this are what I find intriguing. The title Self-Portrait in my work is about the portrait of the intangible self, rather than a literal portrait of the artist.
|