Abolore Sobayo: Savouring  New Paintings on Identities

Yinka Olatunbosun

A multi-disciplinary artist famed for his public artwork—the headless sculpture of Fela in Lagos—is charting a new route for the latest body of works in the Jelosimi series. Sobayo, who is currently an artist-in-residence at the University for Creative Arts, Rochester, England, and midway through his artistic interrogation at the residency programme, narrates the experience around his first group exhibition at the institution, titled Midway.

Having left the Lagos audience spellbound in 2021 with some of his culture-centric paintings and installations in the Jelosimi series, Sobayo continues his interrogation of cultural motifs in this new body of works. Between his time at the dedicated studio space and the time he spends organising workshops for further education students, he created these pieces to engage the university community and show the progress of work midway through the residency.

“The exhibition is titled ‘Midway’ and it aims to show an extension of my Jelosimi series, which began in Lagos,” Sobayo revealed. “It is the curation of head ties (gele) and caps of the Yoruba culture and using the aso oke patterns on acrylic on paper to create the faces of the portraits. I try to explore the question of identity using the indigenous fabric. I try to assess the level of usage and how much it has been used in the past.”

Spurred by the positive feedback from the audience, his works deepen the conversation on the beauty of a diverse culture.

“Many wanted to see things from the other side. A lot of them were intrigued by the subject matter and the skill in rendering it. One of the people who came for the exhibition actually appealed to me that she would have preferred the gele and fila and be able to touch. Moving forward, I am looking at the possibility of gele (head tie) and fila (cap) installation. For me, it is about cultural education.”

Expectedly, the works provoked curiosity in the viewers, who asked more questions about the Yoruba culture. Sobayo, who had enjoyed access to research materials at the university to draw cultural parallels with the works.

“Apart from the Yoruba culture, I also looked at other similar cultures. I was able to explore the narrative around other cultural fabrics and the subject of identity. Often times, there has been a lot of misinformation about Ankara— that it is an African fabric. People tend to forget that they are Dutch wax with African prints. They are not necessarily African fabrics. I am trying to correct that point of view by letting the people know that we have the aso-oke which is really African and we also have the adire. That is why we explore these fabrics as symbols for our identity so that we didn’t distort the history and misinform the people. for me, beyond creating works that have aesthetic value, it is important to archive history and generate some level of discuss in the works; and use the works to document history for generations to come.”

The show, which opened on March 27 and runs till April 28 at the Zandra Rhodes Gallery, UCA Rochester.

“We are six exhibiting artists. I am the only painter, only male and the only person of colour,” he added. “There are others who are ceramists, photographers, someone works with leather. We have already created a family bond among ourselves.’’