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| Ato Arinze in his studio |
By: Mathew B. Oyedele
Ato Arinze was recently a guest on
Artsdiscourse with Mathew B. Oyedele - an online platform for the discourse and
critique of the arts - where he shares his content, technique, and
experiences.
He opens up on his technique of
production and how his method of copper finishing typically evident in his
recent body of works came to be. He makes his pots with coiling methods. And
recently, he likes to bend, compress and sometimes punch his vessels to delineate
the unstable situations in the country. As a young artist, Ato would always go
to the National Museum in Lagos to meditate before the Igbo-Ukwu bronze pots.
This would later inspire his copper finishing method.
The artist did not fail to
recognize his short stint with the iconic Abayomi Barber at the University of
Lagos in 1993 as a stepping stone and blessing in his artistic career. He confides
that the barber art school exposed him to detailed rendition of forms and dexterous
execution which remains visible in his works.
He reveals how he is working closely
with Djakou Kassi Nathalie to free contemporary ceramics from the prison of
functionality and blur the differing line between fine art and applied art. He
believes that ceramics can tell more stories as other genres of art. When asked
if he's more of a sculptor or a potter, Ato replied: "My pottery is an
extension of my sculptures. Most often I use the surface of my pots as canvas to
represent my sculptural ideas in relief forms."
Ato Arinze also decries the inadequate knowledge that ceramic students
are receive in Nigerian art schools where students work without proper
equipments. ”Ceramics as a course in virtually all Nigerian art schools
seem to suffer from neglect compared to other areas in the art departments. There
are no adequate equipments and the few equipments that are available are not
for students’ use. The disunity among ceramic lecturers also affect the
teaching of the art in schools,” he said.
Ato also discussed his intention
to support young and upcoming ceramic artists by organizing constant workshops
and annual exhibitions in his group "Visions In Clay" as well
as bi-annual shows under his explicit theme, "Beyond Functions."
The discourse was moderated by
Mathew B. Oyedele and discussed by Chinezim Moghalu, Olajobi Olushola and
Jennifer Burchill.
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