Priming LIMCAF for the Next Level
With the recent conclusion of its ever-exciting awards night, the annual Life in My City Art Festival, also known as LIMCAF, is well on its way to becoming a more lively and sustainable platform that may ultimately attract global participants. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke writes
It is encouraging to see that, at the recently conducted Life in My City Art Festival competition’s award ceremonies, obviously figurative works—which conceptual art diehards tend to denigrate as outdated, even sometimes as run-of-the-mill—have resumed their winning ways. Recall that a significant number of the past overall-winning works, the most recent being that of the 2021 edition (a drawing by Chichetam Okoronta), toed that line. And hopefully this trend continues, even if it is only to keep the fire of draughtsmanship and creativity alive in the industry. That is besides the fact that it sends encouraging signals to the annual competition’s future contestants, many of whom, obsessed with the idea of winning, seem to vacillate between figurative and non-figurative expressions.
Thus, the choice of “Decayed Decades,” a razor-blade-aided work done in pyrography by Lagos-based Kelvin Ijiko, as the overall winning work by the Ayo Aina-led seven-member jury, after “navigating the complex process of selection,” seems to be a tacit validation of this traditional approach to creative interpretation. To have been deemed worthy of the one million-naira prize for the overall-winning work, Ijiko, a self-taught artist from Benue State, must have scored high on the interpretation of the theme, Fix It!
Speaking just before the awards presentations that Saturday, October 28 evening, at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu’s International Conference Centre, Ayo Aina, as the chairman of the jury, made this clear enough. Through him, the jury, which also included Ato Arinze, Professor Nkemdilim Angela Udeani, Professor Etido Effiong William Inyang, Dr. Jacob Enemona Onoja, Dr. Sukanthy Visagapperumal-Egharevba, and Otunba Oladotun Olatunbosun Alabi, explicitly stated: “The extent to which artists channelled this theme into their creations was a pivotal point in our deliberations.”
Yet, while this overall-winning work does indeed drip with despair as it dredges up the memories of the tragic Lekki Toll Gate shootings of October 20, 2020, in Lagos during the EndSARS protests, it offers no answer or solution to the implied expectation of the theme. Even the artist himself admits this fact in an accompanying statement published in the grand finale’s exhibition. “In contemplating Nigeria,” he writes, “I no longer see the national emblem; only the pain and the hidden suffering come to the forefront of my mind… Can we ‘fix it’? The answer remains elusive, like hands from the clouds. My hope may be small, but one day it will vanquish the deceitful and crown the right leader.”
Really, the inclination to skirt around—oftentimes glossing over the competition’s themes—has long dogged the candidates and, at a point, led some of the stakeholders to mull doing away with themes altogether, an idea that was swiftly shot down by others. A cursory look at this year’s winnings at virtually all, if not all, of the top-winning works shows that the artists are more interested in highlighting the issues that need fixing than proffering solutions to them.
Interestingly, among the Dak’Art-bound top six winners, a.k.a. category prize winners, from which Ijiko had emerged as the best in painting and mixed-media, only the best in the ceramics category—Abuja-based Audu Philip Ikoroko’s installation “Together We Can”—stands out as obviously non-figurative. The rest—Abuja-based Mayi Ekoja’s metal and driftwood sculpture “For the Rainy Days” (winner in the sculpture/installation category), Zaria-based Priscilla Oryina’s yarn in jute work “Almajiri Syndrome” (winner in the textile art/fashion category), Enugu-based Ezichi Nkwocha’s charcoal on paper’s “Fix Our Cultural Identity” (winner in the drawing category), and, of course, Abuja-based Adebayo Ebenezer’s video art, “The Assault” (winner in the graphics/digital art/photography/video art category)—seem to gleefully carry the torch for this easily intelligible form of artistic expression.
Still on the prizes, there are also such winners in the endowed prize categories as Ondo-based Hezekiah Obidare (whose acrylic on canvas painting “Use of Technology: The Engine of Progress” won the Justice Anthony Aniagolu Prize for Originality) and Lagos-based Edward Samuel (whose “Work and Pray” won the Dr. Pius Okigbo Prize for Technical Proficiency). Umoren Edidiong Akpan (whose wire mesh sculpture, “Reconnection of the Broken Line,” won the Mfon Usoro prize for best entry from Uyo/Calabar Centre), Benin-based Gift Esohe Usawaru (whose acrylic painting “Going Back to History” won the Lawrence Agada Prize for Most Promising Artist), Enugu-based Nnamdi Hector Udoka (whose mixed media work “More Panes, No Gains”, won the Vinmartin Ilo Prize for Best Entry from Enugu Region), and Ibadan zone’s Mercy Ola (whose charcoal and graphite on paper with gold leaf “Ola, Ti Ekun Terin” won the Felicia Okorafor Prize for Most Promising Female Artist).
As for the recently-added category prizes, the Most Creative Female and the Special Award for Person with Disability, they were won by Ondo-based Aishat Oyetunde Owoade’s clay and pen work, “Not Beyond Repairs” and Lagos-based Isa Musa Ali’s oil on canvas painting, “Dilapidated Buildings and Buried Bodies”, respectively. They are joined, as consolation prize-winners, by Tochukwu Orazulike, Hezekiah Obidare, Chukwuebuka Ugwuanyi, Christian Imologhone, Olushola Adewuyi, Joann Akayi Kotso, Godstime Uche, Emmanuel Eweje, Motorola John, Sayeed Momoh Onovoiza, and Kingsley Ndubuisi Onwe.
Meanwhile, one of the most important takeaways from the judges’ suggestions is their strong recommendation to separate the awards so that, for instance, drawing and painting could be distinguished as distinct fields while acknowledging the unique skills and media employed by artists in these two categories. However, the proposal to merge photography, video, digital arts, and graphics on the grounds that they share common technological tools and contemporary themes, making their consolidation a practical step to reduce redundancy and streamline the judging process, seems superfluous. This is given the fact that they are already in one category.
Ultimately, the crux of the judges’ recommendations—the thing that matters most—lies elsewhere: in the desire to transform the yearly youth-focused art fiesta, which is supported by the Ford and MTN Foundations and has been in existence since 2007—possibly the longest-running visual arts event in Nigeria—into a more vibrant and long-lasting platform that may eventually welcome participants from outside the country.
