Evolving Currents highlights imperative of national progress

TWO Nigerian artistes, Raqib Bashorun and Chika Idu, are currently exhibiting their works, Evolving Currents, at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
The exhibition showcases a total of 40 works which intersects the amazing works on the socio-political issues from different viewpoints and continues till June 16.
The exhibition allows us to experience a world of bold symbols and detailed forms through heavy wood and metal sculptures by Raqib Bashorun and sensitively textured and layered paintings by Chika Idu.
Both artists have spent the better part of their careers teaching art and inspiring young talents to find their own expression. They also address Nigeria’s need to progress and evolve into an equitable society through subtle political and environmental messages.
While Idu focuses on the rights of women through his portrait series, and an intense study of the plight of children living in coastal communities, Bashorun’s work addresses the need to harness the power of Africa’s human resources rather than continuing wanton intellectual and physical waste.
For close to 30 years, Raqib Bashorun has fashioned re-positioned and re-valued recycled found objects into thought provoking sculptural forms. Bashorun uses diversely coloured and textured wood interspersed and intertwined with metal scraps, tools, nails, or pipes to create intricately embellished and clad artworks. On the one hand, he creates simplified metal forms that show deep integrity of design and symbolism, while on the other hand he sculpts complex patterned works which create a powerful ebb and flow of sculptural meaning and message.
“Most of my works address political issues and the power of numbers,” Bashorun explained. “Nigeria has over 150 million people. I use repetition in my work to address this issue. We are wasting our power of numbers. We need to harness and use the power of numbers for our own advantage.”
In sculptures, such as Eastern Dragon, Bashorun’s artistry comes to light in his use of heavy metal machine spare parts to create a dragon rearing its defiant head, blazing eyes fixed on its enemy while its mane of nails stands erect. In Whistle Blower, Bashorun creates a hemisphere filled with thick intertwined metal chords protruding and seemingly growing out of a satellite shaped sphere.
Bashorun’s prevalent use of the Socratic method of teaching comes through in his art as requires his audience to keep questioning. In Window Dressing, Bashorun makes fun of the flamboyant and materialistic Eko for Show spirit of Lagosians by creating a female form with dramatic and flashy headdress and ostentatious oversized jewelry made out of nails and metal scalps.
These intricate sculptures are expertly juxtaposed with Chika Idu’s world of children playing in water, the shimmering under water light rays expertly reflected across his canvas and deft water colors. We can almost hear the swoosh and muffled laughter of boys playing ball along the coast, a gentle current of childlike innocence. Yet this superficial play is juxtaposed against a sinister reality.
Idu’s inspiration comes from observing daily life within coastal communities and becoming increasingly disturbed by the sight of children playing innocently in heavily polluted water. With over ten years of teaching art at the French International School, Lagos while working in his studio, Idu’s work highlights the fundamental rights of children and women.
“I spent a lot of time watching children play. Children are often brushed aside, not given the respect they deserve, and their voices are not heard,” Idu explained. ” Due to our bad roads and traffic, I started taking the ferry to the Island. What I saw was defecation, waste, and refuse going in to the water while in the same vicinity children swam and women came to fetch water. This really troubled me.”
More than half of Idu’s works in Evolving Currents grapple with the need to protect and sanitise coastal areas. He also presents monochromatic portraits of women on heavily textured canvases. The exhibition is curated by Sandra Mbanefo Obiago and the director of Omenka Gallery, Oliver Enwonwu.