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Artist Statement 

My practice creates immersive unconventional scenarios with an uncomfortable paradox that reflects societal issues and dilemmas in a post-colonial era. I reveal this through artworks to understand personal, collective roles and experiences in this multi-diverse ecosystem.

My works deal with identity, decolonization, heritage, masks, and the modern multifaceted forms of masks.  I harness my perspective to give life to artifacts specifically the Ife bronze mask as the lenses through which the scenes are re-enacted using references my audience is familiar with. Like a games master, I build up a stage, inviting the public both audience and participants to find themselves and unpuzzle the message behind each work. 

I am inspired by live drawing sessions, commercial adverts, drawings, photographs, movies, and discussions with friends, as I mold different images to create a larger topic of discussion. I feel like a director or producer finding different characters and elements for the scene I intend to enact, using lines, pigment, and canvas as my equipment to set the scene. Taking my design background into thought I can see why I treat the canvas like a blank design file. My work is heavily figurative as I fight to strike a balance between drawings and paintings playing with the idea of what is finished or unfinished as an artwork. 

At the beginning of the unit1, I wanted to find the influence of African masks in popular culture, now I am a storyteller. using Ife bronze masks as the visors to depict modern post-colonial nuances for the public to reflect, be immersed, and discover their social masks while talking about mine.

© 2022 by Taken LTD. 

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