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Showing posts from March, 2023

‘From Discards to Coveted’: The Changing Status of Fabrics

Mathew Oyedele  Samuel Nnorom's The Politics of Fabrics is an exhibition of works that were created during a one-month residency program at Guest Artists Space Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria.  For the first time in his career, the artist who lives and works in Nsukka, was able to create works in Lagos – the economic and cultural capital of Nigeria – with materials obtained from it. The exhibited pieces continued the artist's interest in narratives and subjects around fabrics but marked a stylistic departure from his previous explorations of ankara fabrics which are centered around the examination of social structure, social organisation, human condition, safe spaces, distribution and distance. The new work looks at imported second-hand clothes from the West and how they affect the development of our local textile industry. These second-hand clothes and cast-off fabrics have different names in Nigeria. While they are popularly known as Okrika , they are also known as Akube , Bend Do