Protestations: délé jẹ́gẹ́dẹ́, Art, and Activism

Art Statement:

I see art as the physical manifestation of fugitive and enigmatic impulses, searing emotionalities, or pulsating imaginaries. It is an active valve for the release of a variety of expressivities. My creative temper treats art as a battleground for creative engagement—for intellection that operates on individualized registers with its own idiosyncratic syntax.

At times, it is a zone of contention where I exorcise my demons and splay them out on canvas. At other times, art is the funnel through which I purge myself of the visceral anguish that continually assaults my dignity and sensibilities. My art is a response to social constructs that seek to normalize subaltern conditions for people who look like me.

Sustained attempts at demonizing, incarcerating, and subjugating minorities culminated in the George Floyd imbroglio that provoked massive global protestations. Racism, blatant injustice, political aggrandizement, impunity, and intolerance, divergent or contrarian perspectives: all of these provide fillip for my creative muse.

All of these reify my conviction that the arc of my aesthetics must bear witness; it must tilt toward a critique of a socio-political responsiveness by those who are elected, appointed, or otherwise empowered as objective superintendents of social, religious, and political relationships. My work seeks to contribute to the ethos of the artist as a prognosticator and chronicler.

Host or Publisher Calabar Gallery