For Nigerian artist Obiora Udechukwu, talent is not a gift. It is a burden he says God gave him.
Through his uri artwork, Udechukwu paints the social issues Nigeria faces every day through a poet’s words.
“God has given this [talent] to me and it’s a burden I have to carry. If I don’t do it, I’m not going to be happy,” Udechukwu said at the opening of his “Nigerian Poetics” exhibit Friday night at the College of Fine Arts.
Udechukwu’s speech was also held to honor Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo, Udechukwu’s inspiration, said event organizer Cynthia Becker, adding it also preceded the opening of Udechukwu’s exhibit in the Sherman Gallery.
“The goal of this exhibit is to expose people to the richness of contemporary African art and encourage people to study more about it,” said Becker, a College of Arts and Sciences senior. “I hope students will look at African art in a new way.
“These artists don’t fit the stereotypes of African art — they’re not making masks or making things out of wood,” she continued. “They use art forms inspired by European art, but they’re doing it in their own terms.”
Udechukwu showed slides of some of his exhibit’s paintings, which combine the geometric lines of the uli tradition with contemporary colors and designs, as well as the use of text and Okigbo’s poetry as illustration.
Udechukwu said traditional uli designs from the Igbo Nigerian culture, as well as Okigbo’s poetry and his own opinions on Nigerian social politics, all came together in his artistic vision.
Okigbo, who died in 1967 fighting for the independence of Biafra, a state struggling to secede from Nigeria, is considered one of the most accomplished modern African poets and influenced Udechukwu’s work in “Nigerian Poetics.”
Udechukwu said uli art focuses on the linear, asymmetrical designs of community murals painted on the walls of Nigerian shrines. He said his paintings draw on the fact that uli designs are often used in other media, such as textiles and body art, in addition to traditional wall paintings.
“I try to draw attention to what people know, but in a memorable way, just as music, as painting, as film, as any art form does,” he said.
Along with his slides, Udechukwu showed examples of traditional Nigerian art and its influence on his paintings.
“It’s an informative lecture, especially for people who don’t know a lot about African art or culture,” Becker said.
Becker said Udechukwu’s art shows the growing emergence of contemporary African artists.
“Hopefully students will rethink the stereotypes attached to Africans and their art,” she said. “Not all Africans are living in huts and starving. Many of them live in cities and are very cosmopolitan.”
“It’s really interesting to see that their tradition isn’t static,” said CAS senior Abby Simon. “They can transfer their traditional patterns and it still lives on, and they don’t consider it detrimental to the tradition.”