Exhibited in: Knots Of The Human Heart

a housing company. Commissioned by Marie of Paris 1999 – purchased by Purelake 2003.

Exhibited in: Knots Of The Human Heart

Close to My Heart is connected to a series of work that is about photography and life in the Niger Delta.

There is a photograph of flames from an oil well sandwiched in glass container which has oil in it. This is held by a woman dressed in traditional costume as if showing off something important.

Kalabari people generally display photographs in public when someone close has died. (The dead person is shown in good health in an enlarged photograph). Generally the person holding the photograph is related to the deceased. There is an added emotion for the observer when they see the connection in the resemblance of the displayed image and the person carrying it.

It is the emotional content of holding such a photograph which is also my home (I am Kalabari) which inspired this work. My peoples’ health is being damaged and our environment is being polluted by the extraction of oil in this manner. As a piece of work, I like the combination of old and new. Acetate, oil, glass added to a traditional African woman. This combination is very real for me as an African living in these changing times. Nothing stays still.

Discussing this work with Sokari she mentioned that she was embarrassed by the title, perhaps it was too romantic, too soppy. She could not be further from the truth. The title like the sculpture has a poignancy which goes beyond the romantic.

David Jacobbson

Exhibited in: Knots Of The Human Heart

Freud – White Sacrifice was commissioned and exhibited in a group show alongside work from automata artists selected by the film director Terry Gilliam. The show was to celebrate objects from this millennium in preparation for the next.

The brief for the show was set by Terry Gilliam who chose objects that he thought had most affected the lives of people during the 20th century. My ‘object’, which was picked out of hat, was a post card of Freud’s psychiatrists couch. Freud – White Sacrifice is trying to show letting go, madness. Two people freaking out over inner feelings and yet they are in a room, a confined space both fixed to a chair and a couch in close proximity.

It has always stuck me that the positioning of the chair in relation to the couch is peculiar. A situation that is supposed to be intimate but in reality is quite the reverse. As the psychiatrist listens to the patients problems he is pretending not to be there whilst the patient is at the same time desperately trying to reveal their inner most feelings.

I would like to show in my work that the psychiatrist’s couch is an area where you can freak out and let your hair down.

Psychoanalyses is a modern tonic and is particular to Westerners / white people.

Naked Big Fish has a big, yellow shark like fish with a long mouth and fins that are like the wings of a plane. This is a creature that is like a combination of a crocodile and a shark and a dolphin.

I have seen small boys with this sort of masquerade head-dress all my life. I have always enjoyed this shape. The sculpture has a tail tied onto the waist of the figure so that it has an erection from the rear. On its stomach it has a form like a seven month pregnancy. So one has an image of both sexes in one figure.

I love this idea.

Naked Fish came about because I discovered that the British Museum had an unusual old masquerade head-piece from the delta region of Nigeria. The head-piece had been constructed using an open weave conical wicker basket that was originally used to carry fish or periwinkles. A delicately carved small river fish had then been tied horizontally to the top of it, seeming as thought is was swimming across this upturned basket. I thought for anybody to wear this structure would be particularly visually interesting.

I have made a film called Dressing, depicting a teenage masquerade group getting into their costumes and thereby being in the process of changing into gods. Their various states of undress and the structures added to their bodies made for very exciting imagery. The memories of these images enabled me to play with the idea of exposing these gods as men.

DRESSING is a continuation of my research into the art of masquerading.

I enjoy the process by which the masqueraders expose the various layers of their costume in the private moments before the performance. Naked Fish has a string vest that allow the performers nipples to protrude between the strands, which I particularly enjoy.

Naked Big Fish and Naked Gelede follow on the same lines as this work.

Gelede is a masquerade from the Yoruba region of Nigeria.

Being another female masquerade Gelede was an interesting challenge. I felt I had to research it as it was another male art form celebrating women, whilst at the same time constructing satirical plays about life.

Naked Gelede has a chest plate that has exaggerated, drooping breasts and stands in a pose as if to show them off. I was thrilled to find that some Gelede breasts plates have sagging breasts because in the West there is so much pressure to keep breasts erect and full.

Gelede has a bodice to extend its posterior. African women do have bottoms that protrude and this observation is used in many different ways in the art of masquerading.

Gelede is half dressed. By only showing the frame work of its component parts it helps to reveal the masquerading feature of dressing up to be like women.

Exhibited in: Knots Of The Human Heart

Exhibited in: Knots Of The Human Heart

This is a small figure researching my interest in oil wells and masquerades. It is an attempt at a self portrait. I wear overall work clothes every day which is a garment that men normally wear to work on cars or in a factory. I also wear goggles and a head tie covering most recognisable parts of my body. It only just occurred to me that this was like some sort of a masquerade costume.

My World Your World came about as a result of working with the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan. The museum wanted a work that particularly represented with Kalabari people.

We the Kalabari, carry photographs of a relative after they have been buried to let people know that we are related to the deceased and they have passed away.

After being in Nigeria for my holidays I could not help but not notice the increase in the number of oil wells in the Kalabari region. An oil well had been sunk near an island that is particularly sacred because this was where the Kalabari nation started. From this island Kalabari chiefs spread out across the delta with their people to inhabit the islands we now live on. It was always nice to go to this island and to walk around the palm groves and the mounds where our people are buried.

Now we have a roaring oil well beside the island and so much pollution. It is no wonder that in the region, where there are still few modern conveniences, Kalabari people are only living to their fifties.

So I thought I would work with the reality of my home surroundings, a picture of our environment. Instead of a picture of a relative I have an oil well, which a female figure holds as if she is holding the image of a loved one.

Two other figures were added to the woman holding the photograph of the oil well.

Alagba in Limbo this was made for ‘Copenhagen 96’. The idea behind this show was to put an art work in a sea container that would represent the port or country of origin of the artist.

At this time my home state in Nigeria was in conflict with the oil company Shell. Nine people were executed and were not given a fair hearing. I am still very shocked by this period in my countries history. I wanted to show our loss in Alagba in Limbo.

One can look up Alagba’s skirt as he/she is being carried in an undignified manner. The man wearing the Alagba costume had the chance to be a god but lost that chance because his gender has now been revealed. He has been reduced to a man pretending to be a female god whose costume does not cover his private parts. His legs are held uncomfortably and the people carrying him mainly turn away and you are not sure if the are wailing or singing but you know that there is discomfort; a state of limbo.

I wanted people to squeeze past the faces of the male figures as they entered the Alagba in Limbo container. These figures had confused expressions, not knowing if they should sing or cry. The figures are life size, which gives the sculpture a more confrontational feel. If only one could put one’s problems in a container and send them away. But I was glad of the chance to air my discomfort.

Currently Alagba in Limbo is exhibited free of its container.

Exhibited in: Spirits in Steel : The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade

Exhibited in: Spirits in Steel : The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade