Borrowed Histories

“Borrowed Histories” looks at the complexities of the public space and how our private spaces bleed into it and into one another. Taking inspiration from organic conversations and interactions with random strangers on the streets of Nigeria, I reconstruct candid photographs into conceptual collages that reimagine excerpts of their lives in relation to the sociopolitical factors that shape the spaces they occupy.

Bending the boundaries of storytelling and highlighting several under-documented narratives, the collages explore themes around displacement, equality, state failure, agency, and class — a recurring subject is the consequence of inefficient governance. As an Igbo artist from the Niger Delta, my critical outlook is rooted in the awareness of the layers of injustice that have been and continue to be committed against the Nigerian people.

In “Purveyors of false dreams”, a sole figure is seen in a faded t-shirt, originally used to campaign for the Governor’s re-election, boasting of promises and policies that are typically abandoned after the elections. “The Exorcism” looks at the role religion plays in the subjugation of the girl child in Northern Nigeria. “Congregation” compares economic migration with religion, while “Arike won’t be a matriarch” considers the women who are often forced to become de-facto breadwinners in low-income households in Nigeria. “Fodder” questions the notion encapsulated in the Yoruba adage “Ko ma dabi ejo to koja lori apata ti ko nipa” which often sees children as long-term investments expected to yield returns in one way or the other; “Fodder” highlights how this innocent belief can also lead to dehumanizing and harmful outcomes. “The Passion of Uche”, which contains words taken from a discarded magazine found in the archive of the National Library of Nigeria, portrays the paradox of love and abandonment, while “Stolen Youth” draws a parallel between child labour and loss of innocence.

The Exorcism
_{^{Collage, Photography}} – *_{^{30 x 30 inches – 2024}}*

Arike won’t be a matriarch
_{^{Collage, Photography}} – *_{^{30 x 30 inches – 2023}}*

Delusion of Hierarchy
_{^{Collage, Photography}} – *_{^{30 x 30 inches – 2024}}*

Purveyors of false dreams
_{^{Collage, Photography}} – *_{^{30 x 30 inches – 2023}}*

Stillbirth
_{^{Collage, Photography}} – *_{^{30 x 30 inches – 2023}}*

December 26, 2006 – There was a pipeline explosion in Awori, Abule-Egba, a community close to the outskirts of Lagos. The pipeline had been vandalized earlier that day, and a lot of people in the community had left with kegs and buckets to scoop petrol from the punctured pipeline.

The news of the explosion traveled fast and families in my neighborhood began headcounts. Later, we heard of missing sons and uncles – one of whom had survived the explosion with burns and flagged a commercial bike to take him home, his parents rushed him to the hospital but the burns were too severe and he passed not long after.

“Fodder” is partly inspired by this incident, the collage includes a photograph i took years later of the wall of the building the man and his family used to live in – ‘The owner was buried inside pls beware buyers’

Essentially, “Fodder” questions the notion encapsulated in the Yoruba adage “Ko ma dabi ejo to koja lori apata ti ko nipa” which often sees children as long-term investments expected to yield returns in one way or the other; “Fodder” highlights how this innocent belief can also lead to dehumanizing and harmful outcomes.