19/10/2025
🎨Loopholes We Inherited: is a triptych framed with reclaimed bicycle tyres, each circular form punctured with fabricated openings that symbolize scars. fractures, and absences-metaphors for what has been lost, neglected, or erased from our collective identity. The series addresses both cultural dispossession and environmental degradation, presenting inherited wounds while imagining the possibility of resilience.
Cultural Erosion (First Panel): Within its openings appear images of Nigeria's stolen artifacts, the Benin bronzes, Ife bronze heads, Nok terracottas, juxtaposed with Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba symbols. The work critiques Eurocentric dismissals of African traditions as primitive, revealing ruptures in cultural memory and the commodification of heritage abroad.
The Bridge (Second Panel): This piece highlights the inseparable bond between environment and heritage. Inscriptions etched into its perforations remind viewers that land and water sustain not only life but also cultural practices, such as the Argungu Fishing Festival. It interrogates unsustainable practices that pollute traditions rooted in nature.
Stage of Existence (Third Panel): Here, the earth is symbolized as a circular globe spilling with rags-an emblem of pollution and filth that threatens both ecology and memory. The work questions what becomes of cultural, religious, social, and political life when the very stage of existence; nature itself disappears.
Collectively, the triptych confronts inherited cultural and ecological ruptures, interrogating the costs of exploitation while urging a reclamation rooted in sustainability. By using discarded materials to reconstruct memory, I reframes heritage as both vulnerable and enduring, calling for a future where continuity and identity are preserved through care for the environment.
Loopholes We Inherited (Triptych)
Medium: Mixed media
Dimensions: Three circular frames, each
27 inches in diameter
Medium: Mixed-Media (Scrap Tyres)
Year: 2025