In her video performance piece “the epic crossings of an ife head,” visual and performance artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji ponders the durability of the relationship between the exiled/estranged (stolen) and that which was left unwillingly behind. She muses on what connection might remain after time has passed and new iterations of identity have been generated. In explaining the significance of the piece, she has written, “‘the epic crossings of an Ife head’ considers the question does homeland long for us through the video performance of a Nigerian Ife head who has taken on a body in order to journey across the Atlantic from Nigeria in search of her long-lost descendants. The Ife head must make sense of her new body and the American landscape, not to mention the actual trip across the Atlantic.” Using stop motion animation techniques to capture the movement of the ife head, Ogunji also carefully shapes sound. The hard landing of her feet on the ground, accompanied by deeply exhaled grunts, conveys the physical, emotional and spiritual weight of the journey.
Internationally acclaimed, with home and work spaces in both Austin, Texas and Lagos, Nigeria (her father’s birthplace,) Ogunji just showed at Art Paris Art Fair and is about to embark on high profile performances, exhibitions and talks across Europe. In a recent write-up of her work on the site africaisacountry.com, writer Bimbola Akinbola focused heavily on Ogunji’s drawings and threadwork, noting:
“Ogunji’s pieces can easily be seen as resistance to the type of cultural production that has been most valued by the art world and what has been dismissed as craft.
Fascinated by the ways in which people negotiate the city using little to no words and how simple gestures incite actions, Ogunji attempts to capture snippets of all that goes unsaid. Creating complex, dreamlike scenes on architectural tracing paper, which appears almost cloth-like against the thread, graphite and ink, Ogunji’s drawings are weightless in material and ethereal in theme.”
Perhaps (Thread, ink, graphite on paper)
City of Ife (Thread, acrylic, graphite on paper)
In September of last year, ahead of her performance piece The Kissing Mask, she blogged about the inspiration for and (one) meaning of the piece, writing:
“The Kissing Mask is a performance inspired by one of ruby onyinyechi amanze‘s drawings. The drawing is titled:
that low hanging kind of sun, the one that lingers two feet above your head, (never dying) house plants in exchange for your freedom…orchids in exchange for your love, who are you kissing, when you kiss a mask?
ruby onyinyechi amanze
I was particularly drawn to this question: who are you kissing, when you kiss a mask? For the performance I have created a mask [which riffs off of amanze’s drawing]. I sit on a plinth over the course of the evening and kiss audience members who approach me. These may be cheek, face or lip kisses.
The Kissing Mask reconnects the ‘artifact’ to the present moment by proposing an intimate act between artist, mask and viewer. As such, this performance complicates and dismantles the mask as sacred object or historical relic by making use of it on a living body [that of the artist/performer]. The performance also becomes a vehicle to speak about what constitues intimacy, touch, and connection. What do we share with and show to our family, friends and strangers? Does a mask offer a space to negotiate that intimacy outside of society’s rules? Does the mask come alive only through the audience? Or simply the artist? Or, is it always charged? Do the intentions of the wearer and/or viewer affect the power and pull of the object?”
The Kissing Mask. Photo by John Rudolph
The Kissing Mask. Photo by John Rudolph
Click here to watch her especially beautiful, powerful 2011 video piece My father and I dance in outer space.
Upcoming dates:
African Artivism: Kunst als politische Aktion
Art as Political Action
April 9-10, 2016
Performance: There are many ways to fall into the sea
April 9, Saturday, 4-7pm, CAT Cologne, Venloerstr. 24
Artist Talk: Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Sam Hopkins, Smockey, Hellen Njeri Mwangi
April 10, Sunday, 1:00pm, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cäcilienstr. 29-33
Exhibition
Disguise: Masks and Global African Art
Curated by Pam McClusky & Erika Dalya Massaquoi
Brooklyn Art Museum
April 29–September 18, 2016
Performance
Art Alive Festival
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
The Kissing Mask
May 6-7, 2016
