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The commemorative activities of the
The Rediscovery of Tradition, the on-going project by Pendulum
Centre for Culture and Development have ended in Nigeria. The final
leg of the exhibition is now on in Worcester, South Africa.
The exhibition, workshop, roundtables and documentary were preceded
by a 15-month research commissioned by Pendulum Centre for Culture
and Development. The research was carried out in five villages in
Igbo land, namely, Nri, Agulu, Ogidi, Nsugbe (all in Anambra State,
Nigeria), and Inyi. The exercise was led by Nigerian painter and
theorist, C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, who had done some work on uli in the
early 1990s. He was assisted by Okey Nwafor (painter and art
teacher), Ozioma Onuzulike (ceramist and art critic), and musician,
O’dyke Nzewi who had done some previous workshops on uli with some
Igbo women classical painters in Nsugbe, Anambra State, Nigeria, in
the early and mid 1990s.
Besides commissioning the women to demonstrate their painting skills
on the human body and some walls, they were also encouraged to try
out some of their ideas on paper, an angle which had been
successfully explored in Nsugbe by O’dyke Nzewi while he worked with
the traditional women painters under the directorship of German
painter, Doris Weller.
The results of the painting sessions in the different villages and
some of the actual works made by the women on paper all informed the
exhibition organised by Pendulum, including the present one we are
about to witness here in this hall.
Although one of the aims of the project is to bring the women
classicists to limelight in recognition of the impact their works
have had on some modern Nigerian art, as exemplified by the works of
the Nsukka-trained artists and their followers, its principal aim is
to return to uli in the cradle and possibly incite artists,
craftspeople and product developers to examine it from fresh
perspectives and see how it could be caused to transcend “the ivory
tower of high art” and assume a more functional essence that can
assure its pertuity in the present and, perhaps, the future.
For these reasons, the works of the uli women classicists are
juxtaposed with those of their modern followers as a way of
underlining the dynamic nature of culture and the futility of the
absolutism that is the misfortune of modern Nigeria and Africa as a
whole. A few functional designs are also included as pointers to the
coming possibilities in uli. Although this happens to be the real
fulcrum of the exhibition, we have not been able to stress it as
should be due to paucity of funds. The original idea was to
commission/encourage some artists and product designers to create
some functional items employing the lyricism of uli motifs and their
aesthetics. Although this could not happen effectively due to the
afore-mentioned reason, it remains a major plank in the project to
be further pursued by Pendulum Centre in the coming years from a
Nigerian perspective.
The exhibition in Enugu and Lagos were well received by the
different audiences. In both cities, they provided an exciting
departure from the usual bread-and-butter exhibits which have become
so prevalent in the art circuit in Nigeria. Most visitors to the
exhibitions confessed that the shows were very educative and
represented a useful bridge between the past, the present, and the
future. From our own assessment, many of the young artists who
visited the shows were positively affected, as new vistas were
obviously opened to them through the critical and practical
interface of classical and modern uli works. Above all, the
exhibitions, through their major accompanying texts attempt a
stylistic classification of uli, an aspect not addressed by previous
subjects and studies on the subject.
The next stage of the project – an interactive workshop for selected
students in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka – is one of the ways of turning uli in new
directions. The workshop which was formally opened at Nsukka on
February 17, 2005, has been described by many as the very beginning
of a second rebirth of uli for which the art department at Nsukka
has been known for several decades. The workshop consists in the
construction and decoration of a hut by the participating students
as a homage to uli. The foundation stone of the hut was laid by Mr
Gerard Chouin (Director, Alliance Francaise), assisted by Mr. Harry
van Putten (Principal Consultant, PSU Project Consultants) with many
artists, art historians, and students in attendance.
The contribution of the Nsukka-trained artists to the history of
modern art in Nigeria remains matchless. But we believe that the
present state of affairs in Nigeria and other parts of the continent
makes extra demands on individuals and creative people. If our
history as a people must make positive advancements, as should our
rich cultural heritage, conventions and some prevailing traditions
must be revisited and re-interrogated for the generation of new
ideas which can provide us the road map to new horizons. Thus the
uli art, though it has survived and succeeded in the ivory tower and
in the narrow circles of high in the last thirty years, needs to
assume new expressions if it must become useful to more people in
our time as it was in time past.
The exhibit in Worcester, South Africa, is the last in the series of
events that form the component parts of this project. But it is not
an end itself. The project itself is not ended. The exhibitions,
according to Peter Areh, Director of Pendulum Art Gallery, “are only
part of our strategy for sensitising artists and craftspeople to the
possibilities of uli. In the coming years, with the right kind of
support, we hope to turn uli into a major resource for certain forms
of functional design.”
The South African edition of “The Re-discovery of Tradition” opened
on March 3, 2005 at the Jean Welz Gallery on 113 Russell Street, in
central Worcester, South Africa. The gallery is accommodated in an
imposing, old historic building that has attained some sort of
heritage site status in the local community. The reasons are not
far-fetched: it used to be the dwelling place of a very famous South
African artist, Jean Welz who left a lasting legacy through his art.
The building, having been handed over to the municipality upon his
death, was transformed into a gallery by a group of artists who
manage and run the gallery as a committee. It also houses some
permanent collection of the late artist’s works.
The building spoke volumes of muted history and played the perfect
host to a resuscitated tradition begging for a lifeline. It could
have been an unconsciously crafted connection or a carefully
engendered one between Jean Welz Gallery and the uli art tradition
bearing in mind the historicity of the Jean Welz and the
transpository nature and essence of the exhibition.
7.00pm on Thursday, March 3, a crowd of art enthusiasts gathered for
the formal opening of the exhibition. Mr. Peter Vasser, Chairman of
the Board of Trustees of the Jean Welz Gallery gave a formal welcome
speech and afterwards, invited Mr. Jaco Sieberhagen, who played some
major role in the coordination of the Worcester end of the
exhibition, to do an introductory remark on the exhibition. In his
remark, Mr. Sieberhagen spoke extensively on uli, tracing his first
contact with uli to January 2004 when he was in Nigeria for an art
programme and expressing how fascinated he was by the spatiality of
the engaging motifs of uli. After his remark, he introduced Mr.
Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi who spoke on other aspects of the project,
and also on the exhibition as well as art in Nigeria. Nzewi briefly
touched on the uli project, which he said was geared towards the
rekindling of interest in this unique art form from southeastern
Nigeria, and also to find more contemporaneous ways of making the
art form interesting, engaging and relevant to the society. He cited
examples with the traditional motifs and symbols of South Africa
which had been exploited commercially as business-driven enterprise.
The exhibition now opened, allowed the milling crowd an unfettered
access to the works on display. Indeed, it must be said that with
the exception of Mr. Sieberhagen who had seen the uli forms in the
past, none of the people present had a clue to what it was but it
was amazing the level of connection between them and the art. The
myriad questions they raised were provided with revealing answers by
the uli team.
Prior to the exhibition, the uli team had visited a section of
college schools in Worcester where the uli documentary was shown to
the students and their teachers. The students were able to draw
similarities between the uli and their local tradition also facing
similar problems of extinction. The two schools visited were the De
Ha Bal School for the deaf and the Hugo Naude Art Centre. The
responses were that of novelty and excitement.
There was also a live talk show invitation extended to the Nigerian
team by the Valley FM in Worcester. It was a good opportunity for
members of the team to speak on the uli art form and on the entire
project.
Works from the uli exhibition was also exhibited concurrently at the
Whoosh Festival (a festival of wine treading) that ran from March 4
– 6, 2005. It was a big festival that provided a veritable platform
to showcase uli to a wider section of people. The uli team led by
the Director of Pendulum Center for Culture and Development, Mr.
Peter Areh, was also involved in the art demonstration classes
during the festival.
In all, the exhibition in South Africa could be adjudged to be a
success, not when it is viewed from the narrow perimeters of
commercial success considering the poor sales recorded but one could
take solace in the fact that the project was never intended to be a
money-spinning initiative but rather contrived as a means to
sustainable economic development in the arts and creative sector.
The strength of the project does not only lie in its energy, focus
and futuristic ideal but also on its vision.
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