Addressing Silent Voices…

Yinka Olatunbosun

For the next three weeks, art collectors and enthusiasts will have eyes fed with the brand new collection of works that speak for the voiceless at the Quintessence Gallery, Ikoyi. The artist, Chamberlain Ukenedo has been in the advertising industry for almost two decades but remains inseperable from art. Drawing upon some very personal experiences, this Imo-state born artist spends at least two hours every day reflecting on his artistry. If there’s anything he does as frequently as breathing, then it’d be sketching. His mobile devices have enormous sketches which he involuntary documents so that he doesn’t completely forget any idea that may strike him on-the-go.

The result of this culture of documenting every day experience forms part of what led to a series of works in mixed media. Ukenedo’s pieces largely appropriate lots of fabric. He revealed that this aspect of his art has been influenced by his wife who is a fashion designer. He makes his listener long for a particular installation with flying petals. How creative!

Ukenedo’s inspiration form the show can also be traced to a tragic experience. He lost his father to wrong diagnostics.

“He was diagnosed of asthma at 72,” he recalled. “All his life, I have never seen any symptoms of the ailment and I was wondering why such thing would develop at such age. I later realised that towards the end it was actually lung cancer that he had. He couldn’t talk. Whenever I went to see him, I’d use sign language of scribble. My mother even said I was the only one that he listened to. My father would tell me all the things that had been happening during the week and some I would understand, some I wouldn’t. The day he discovered I didn’t understand what he was trying to say, he seemed disappointed that even with all his efforts, I didn’t understand him.”

With that experience, the artist began to see every face on the street as a canvas. He even insisted that every face tells a story. For him, there are lots of people who have no one to speak for them because they have been disenfranchised. One of his works titled, “Body Language” is to communicate in non-verbal terms the plight of the underprivileged. This explains the theme for the exhibition which is Silent Voices.

“There are some people who do not need to say any word because their presence says that they are no-nonsense persons,” said Ukenedo who began to work assiduously on this body of works since mid-2016. His works are quite timely as he seeks to address the issue of suicide, amongst other subject matters.

“You see them everyday. They are regular people. But deep down, they are going through struggles. Majority of my works focus on the facial expression. The face says it all,” he remarked.

There are 20 works in the exhibition wherein Chamberlain explores the complexity of human emotions through facial manipulations. Playing with pastel and coffee, Ukenedo seeks to express himself using a few unconventional media forms.

“When we are stripped of words, the eyes are the messengers of the soul,” said Ukenedo whose exhibition runs till May 6.