Didi Museum: It’s a Tale of Two Women Artists

Yinka  Olatunbosun

Bound by the same mindset to project the narratives of women and the girlchild, two female artists, Ayoola Oluwaseun Omovo and Adedoyin Adelani N. (Bello), are celebrating the human spirit through their bodies of work in the show called Vivid Delight. A product of several months of research and preparation, the artists parade unique visual storytelling, drawing inspiration from the experiences of contemporary African women as well as the plight of the girl child in a patriarchal society.

Adedoyin and Ayoola have both encountered Peju Layiwola and Peju Alatishe in the course of their art careers and have drawn great inspiration from them as they evolved in their respective studio practices. Indeed, Adedoyin’s silhouette embroidery works remind one of Peju Alatishe’s early silhouette oil on canvas paintings of the early and mid-2000s, which Adedoyin has never seen up until today, and they also remind one of the coloured thread works of Bisi Fabunmi, a first generation and important member of the Oshogbo School of Art.

Having been involved in art practice since 2006, Ayoola has participated in several local and international exhibitions. A part-time teacher at the French school, Ayoola traced her love for art to her childhood, precisely in elementary school. Later, she honed her craft at the Institute of Textile Technology, Art, and Design, Oregun, Lagos, where she obtained her first diploma in 2002. She would proceed to the University of Benin, where she graduated in 2006, having studied fine art.

“There is something about black and white,’’ she said while explaining her preference for monochrome silhouette paintings at a press preview inside Didi Museum, where the works are currently showing till June 10. “It is not common in visual art. It brings back memories. A lot of people are curious about the black and white paintings.”

The graduate of the University of Benin and a part-time art instructor at the Lycee Francais Louis Pasteur (French School) in Lagos treasures women and children and demonstrated this by capturing various female forms drawn from everyday life in rural and urban contexts.

The curator, Moses Ohiomokhare, described her works as “a digital art form that takes a sketch and creates a silhouette of colours and forms a beautiful character.” In the Makoko Series, the slum community is portrayed as a tourist destination.

“The white people who visit have been able to capture beautiful scenery even though the residents live on water,’’ she continued. “The transportation is by boat, and the market is on water. The school is on water—a floating school. People are surviving there.

“The butterfly alludes to calmness in the face of a storm. Through my work, I advocate for women because they face a lot of challenges in Africa. In the past, our parents had several children and a lot of hands to help raise them. But nowadays, you can hardly find anyone who can help you attend to a child.”

She added that a girl child should be educated, not kept behind closed doors or limited to the kitchen.

Unique for her silk embellishment, Adedoyin’s technique is spellbinding, exuding luxury and warmth. A follower of Ana Teresa Barboza’s works, the artist revealed how her works were recently discovered at the residence of Prof. Ebun Clark by the curator. Her foray into the arts was almost accidental, as she set off to study mass communication initially. But some workshop sessions on paintings at the Lagos State Polytechnic in Ikorodu put her in the spotlight, and eventually she studied painting at the institution alongside her obligations as a mother of two. With 14 local and international exhibitions, Adedoyin recalled the circumstances surrounding her childhood and life’s ambitions.

“I am the ninth child and the first girl child. I know what I went through—being neglected,’’ she revealed. “I fought to be educated. I trained myself to enrol at a higher institution of learning. I went to school as a mother of two children. I try to mentor the younger generation of women to understand that even without parental backing, they can be educated.

With 12 pieces on display, Adedoyin is living her dream of projecting the narratives of women, drawing some inspiration from the box office hit “The Woman King.”

“I used the drip technique in some of the works. I am very conscious of the texture of my paintings. I mix my colours with materials to bring out the effect,’’ she explained.

The butterfly motif in the works of the two artists—though a coincidence—speaks to the message of hope that permeates every piece at the show.