Tech & Sci
16:12, 01-Dec-2017
Festival in Lagos celebrates African art
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The AFRICAN Culture and Design festival in Lagos, Nigeria, featured a mix of traditional Africa art and modern and contemporary art.
Organizers of the celebration of African art and design aim to provide a platform for creative and raise awareness of Africa's homegrown talent.
"The idea is to give visitors an overview of artistic practice not only in Nigeria but across Africa and the diaspora," explains the curator of the modern-contemporary art pavilion, Bisi Silva.
Another aim is to make Lagos a cultural hub.
"We also have a selection of contemporary African and Nigeria artists, you know, working in a diversity of media whether its painting, photography, virtual reality, as well as you know, new media. So it's extremely exciting, extremely forward-looking, and extremely innovative," adds Silva.
Trends in Nigerian art shows some growth potential, with Nigerians collecting artworks from other parts of Africa as well.
Artist Kilani Abbas says the art scene is growing in the country.
"People who are coming up are using materials that has to do with the work they are making, they are not just painting because, … or drawing, or making art because they want people to come and see art, they have a meaning behind what they are making so which I think it's a positive thing that is happening to the art scene in Nigeria.”
But with the rising cost of art materials, some art schools have decided to provide the basics, like paper and pencils, to help students from less privileged homes.
Prof. Chinyere Ndubuisi of the School of Fine Arts, at YABATECH – Yaba College of Technology – expresses her concern over the number of student ideas which never see the light of day, thanks to the expense of realizing them.
"If it's something that has to be painted or an idea that has to be produced in three-dimensional form, which is sculpture, then they need money to get that done and these materials that they need to acquire to get the ideas produced are not easy to come by," she explains, "so most times the ideas die on paper if at all it gets to that level.”
The AFRICAN Culture and Design festival was held from November 9 to 12.
Source(s): AP