Appreciating our cultural heritage and imagining a better future from it: that is one of the goals of Ade Okelarin, a self-taught photographer and visual artist.
His professional name is “Àsìkò”. A word for “time” or “moment” in one of his native Nigerian languages, Yoruba. Incorporating aspects of traditional Yoruba culture was a key aspect of his creative journey. In his two recent series, Guardians and Of Myth and Legend, he explores the iconography of the Yoruba deities, or Òrìshas.
In Yoruba history, the Aarisha are sacred beings with divine powers, passed down by slaves and their descendants in the Caribbean and South America, and their worship continues beyond West Africa.
But Okeralin, who grew up in Nigeria during the 1980s and his 1990s, did not find mainstream education in indigenous beliefs common, so his journey as an artist would dismantle his previous knowledge. I say it was.
“The work is about exploration and understanding the things I was not taught in school,” Okelarin said, “and creating a space for me to understand heritage and creating something with legacy.”
His portraits and images of Òrìshàs combine traditional photography with artificial intelligence (AI), digital editing techniques and collaging, and are Okelarin’s way of drawing connections between various global mythologies, through which, he says, we are all linked in our deep-rooted stories.
While researching the projects, he noticed similarities between elements of Yoruba and Western mythology, such as the Yoruba deity Sango and Norse god Thor, both of whom are deities of thunder and lightning, and the Òrìshà Olokun, who represents the sea, like her Greek counterpart Poseidon.
The premise of his work, he says, is “looking back to look forward” to know where Africans are from as a society and help carve a future “shaped not by Westernization, but a grounding of cultural ideology and aesthetics.”
Okelarin moved to the UK in 1995 and says his research into his own culture changed his frame of reference from that of a Western gaze to one that celebrates a “beautiful different point of view” and helped him understand his heritage.
“In the world of increasing globalization, it is important to maintain a sense of identity that informs better societal structures,” Okelarin said. “Westernization is not the answer to advancement, but we need a blend of who we are and what the world offers or we will lose what makes us ‘us.’” Creating and sharing these images using modern technology and techniques is one way to show that “our stories matter” he adds.
Enlightenment:
Growing up in Nigeria surrounded by African art collected by his father, Okeralin has always had an affinity for art and photography, but studied chemistry and worked as a data researcher architect in the pharmaceutical industry. was “Thanks to his Nigerian parents who didn’t want him to be a starving artist.
“However, over time his mindset changed and by 2015 he was dedicating himself to photography full-time is another of his roles as an artist, says Okeralin, whose travels, culture and experiences as a Yoruba living in the UK explore themes such as female genital mutilation, masculinity, mysticism, identity and race is the lifeblood of his work, he says, using the concept of layering, like his 2020s.
She is Adorned series, where the subject matter is literally adorned with layers of African beads and jewellery also uses digital rendering to blend aspects of his cultural heritage such as fabrics and textures with photographs.
The amalgamation of different processes, combining traditional photography with AI, has “opened up powerful imaginative possibilities” for him.
These new opportunities include painting and sculpture, he says. In 2022, he created globe artwork for his World Re-imagined project. The project is a British art history educational project centered around the transatlantic slave trade, with over 100 of his globes placed across Britain.
His work has been exhibited in the UK, Nigeria and the US and recently launched his first NFT series in his gallery, Fine Art NFT Photo his Bridge Gallery.
With work that goes back in time and is always evolving, Okeralin says he remains open to journeys that allow experimentation and growth.
“As I got older, I realized that there was beauty and resonance in the culture of my hometown,” he said. “Living in a diaspora, my cultural heritage is a bigger part of my identity and identity than ever before. It’s a strength.”
Originally published at https://businessdor.com on January 26, 2023.
