Different Strokes of Intimacy, Music and Denim

Vanessa Obioha

For two days in August, visual artist Bright Igho transformed the bar at Ediye in Lekki to a pop-up art show. Colourful paintings, sequential drawings and upcycled denim art by the artist were strategically positioned at the bar to attract the human eye.

In his latest display, Igho explored the theme ‘Different strokes and relationships’. In each piece, he tackled the different flaws in human relationships in a bubbling city like Lagos, only that in his works, it is the ‘Denim City’. A lover of denim, Igho painted a bubbling city where those who seek love and happiness will have to travel through the windy blue denim overhead bridge to get to the love spot.

In another, he used cutlery to address infidelity in relationships. One of his intriguing pieces on intimacy was the ‘Figuring ourselves out’, a drawing of two subjects whose heads are replaced with Rubik’s cubes.

“When two people are in a relationship, they are actually on a journey of discovery. The longer time they spend with each other, the more they discover their likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses,” he explained.
Intimacy according to the artist is an interesting subject to explore in today’s world.

“People are caught up in relationships, social media influence, movies and the aggressiveness with which people are caught up in the hype is very intriguing.”

Describing his style as ‘musicdenim’, Igho infused musical elements in his works. In one of his paintings, he offered music, afrobeat in this case as an alternative to the economic hardships faced by citizens. In another drawing, he traced the disappearing forms of music storage. From the days of music cassettes to the current use of digital clouds.

While his works are products of creativity, Igho believed that art should be functional. One of his musical paintings he revealed had a musical CD compilation.

Perhaps,the most interesting pieces in his works were the upcycled jeans art. Using discarded denim, he created a denim suite comprising of a couch and a stool. There was also a guitar partly designed in denim. He explained the dots connecting denim, music and love thus: “Love is tough and hard like denim but can also be sweet as music.”