The Arthouse Foundation is pleased to present its first residency exhibition of 2019, featuring artists-in-residence Diana Ejaita and Wilfred Ukpong.  

 

Diana Ejaita and Wilfred Ukpong have completed three-month artist residencies in Lagos with the Arthouse Foundation, where they were prompted to create new artistic projects that engaged the city of Lagos. 

 

Diana Ejaita is a Nigerian/Italian artist based in Berlin who works in illustration and textile design. During her residency, Diana Ejaita experimented with the silkscreening process to explore the legacy of Nigerian author Amos Tutuola. Inspired by the author’s stream of consciousness style and narrative patterns, Diana explores the conversation between texts, images and objects. 

 

Ejaita was intrigued by the author’s unique way of breaking down and recomposing classical myths, and she mirrors this in her artistic process, combining together a stream of diverse forms in her print series. She also creates sculptures that elaborate on these elusive figurations. Ejaita also presents a short film based on Tutuola’s celebrated book, The Palm Wine Drinkard, questioning the roles given to women in his narratives. Combining print, sculpture and video, Ejaita presents a contemporary vision of Tutuola’s iconic and surreal take on traditional mythology.

 

Wilfred Ukpong is a French-Nigerian artist based in Oxford, UK, who works between photography, film, sculpture, installation and performance. Since 2011, he has developed a long term project in the Niger Delta that explores the environmental concerns of the oil and gas industry through film and community intervention. In Lagos, Wilfred has created another chapter in this ten-part Blazing Century project, which are set within geographical locations embroiled in social and environmental conflicts and filtered through a fictional and futuristic lens. 

 

BC-2: Agents of Resistance explores contextual issues facing Makoko, the floating community located on the coast of the Lagos mainland, which is under constant threat of eviction and demolition. Incorporating photography, sculpture, film and sound installation, Ukpong creates a speculative dimension of Makoko that imagines alternative narratives of the future through the metaphors of resistance and resilience. The project draws on the communal histories of found objects and was created with the participation of the local youth as collaborators and subjects.