“The minute you can’t term (something), you think of another interpretation and then you add to it. Because knowledge can be memory and memory can work as knowledge.”-Odun Orimolade
Nubuke Foundation is currently exhibiting drawings by renowned artist Odunayo Orimolade. In the exhibition dubbed, Knowing, Odun’s intricate and mesmerising drawings keep the viewer spellbound and drawn into her imaginary world. The exhibition runs from October 9 until December 5, 2021.
Moved by notions of flexible creative exploration, Odun’s creative practice is spurred on by the power of human interaction and storytelling.
This process begins as she tries to do the impossible: capture the meanings and sounds of missed words during storytelling sessions with her late father. Despite not understanding Yoruba very well, Odun like many of us would, reinterprets these tales using pieces of her memory and present knowledge to navigate through the spinning and ever expanding void of the intangible yet familiar.
As an avid reader of literature, Odun’s intricate drawings exist as a portal between the knowledge she consumes and the memories she has retained. Attempting to rebuild and fill the spaces that exist within one’s knowledge or memory banks, her practice bridges these gaps with the creation of new worlds or multiverses as she calls them. In the process, these bridges take on a life of their own. Different meanings and uses for the same word evolve into a new method of looking at presented information.
Universe-crafting and mark-making, Odun relies on her imagination as a source of valuable knowledge to replenish existing gaps. In her new worlds, nothing is lost or missing and she invites her viewers to revel in this sentiment.
It is un- imaginable what space can generate. It is not dead, it has no limit. In many ways we accept the presence of it. It is a place of a myriad of plausibility. There is an acceptance of subjectivity and an openness to err on the side of exploration.”-Odun Orimolade
Odun Orimolade is a Nigerian artist and academic based in Lagos. She currently serves as Sub-Dean of the School of Art, Design and Printing at Yaba College of Technology where she lectures in the Fine Art Department.
The exhibition will be followed by an Art Talk hosted by Odun.
