Usen Obot
BIRTH DATE:
Born 1973 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
EDUCATION:
Art and Design, Fine and Applied Arts(HND/ BA)
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My works seeks to interrogate and bring to the fore our inner consciousness that we have or not harnessed to influence our society.
My work has evolved from two dimensional presentations in pen, ink, water colour , oils and acrylic presentations of sites, events, objects, and thoughts to experimentations into common materials. In turn my colours, material and the theme in my recent works have equally changed to reflect and encompass our society's present state, my experiences and the thinking that I wish to provoke.
In my recent body of work, I have focused on the exploration into the use and combination of common materials such as Wood, fabric, metal, Stainless steel, glass fibre, and biodegradable materials. These stretches across painting, sculpture, installation and site specific works. In the Mkpese series, I seek to re-contextualize and reimagine the ancient African practices of the 'Ekpo' society which predates the colonizing of Africa by centuries administered by initiated men whose role involved combining religion, spirituality, governance and administration to maintain peace and protect the community.
In the Ekpo order, families were entrusted through custodianship the management, care and narrative of each of the 'Ekpo' society's various segments. In comparison, and in contrast to the governments of today, the works reimages the significance of unity in the family construct which is integral to social cohesion, empathy and community development. This ouvre also communicates the significance of the spirit world in African culture and to reiterate the integral value of African spirituality in the holistic creation and maintenance of social order.
The pieces and range of materials share a holistic connection. The range of materials merged cohesively speak to the unification of people from all backgrounds coming together to create a society.
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