3 Questions Digital Series

Osi Audu

An interview from Art in Embassies 3 Questions Digital Series with Osi Audu, who speaks about his creative process and artwork at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Abuja, Nigeria.

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Full Transcript

00:22
in africa as a whole there is this whole
00:25
this concept of dualism as
00:28
i said applies to the self there’s the
00:32
tangible aspect
00:32
there is the intangible aspect and the
00:35
yoruba
00:36
see this dualism this concept as
00:39
the outer and the inner head they see uh
00:42
consciousness as the head as a head
00:46
and these drawings which are mainly done
00:50
in black pastel and graphite
00:54
i use a geometric shape as a basic
00:56
foundation
00:57
and and tend to
01:01
manipulate that geometric form in a way
01:04
that
01:05
there is a projection on one side which
01:08
tend to
01:10
represent the nose and a chain the dark
01:13
space in the center itself is
01:16
where this this intangible essence of
01:19
self
01:20
is is supposed to be
01:23
like i always say that they are about
01:25
blackness with all it
01:27
represents with all that word represents
01:29
you know blackness but not blackness as
01:31
an absence of light
01:32
but blackness as light that is
01:35
imperceivable by the eyes because there
01:37
is so much
01:39
about the nature of of consciousness the
01:42
nature of being that
01:43
nobody knows anything about so so it
01:46
represents all of
01:47
all that is unseeable and unknowable
01:50
about the nature of being
01:57
i think it’s uh for me personally it’s
02:01
it’s difficult to say how long
02:04
it takes to make a workout because um
02:08
i use a sketchbook so
02:12
if you’re looking at the the point of
02:14
inspiration
02:15
when the idea occurred and i sketched it
02:18
in my schedule and i
02:20
go about my day and you know muse on it
02:23
and
02:23
adjust this you know this sketch and
02:26
work it this way and
02:28
conceive of it at a large scale or small
02:30
scale and
02:31
so you start counting time from then
02:33
right and then
02:34
the process of of preparing the canvas
02:37
right
02:38
because you i have to stretch you know
02:39
make the canvas stretcher make those
02:41
myself
02:42
prime it and then put the paper on it
02:45
and then do the sketch on it
02:46
yeah so it’s very difficult to to know
02:48
exactly how long
02:50
but the physically the final product
02:52
itself
02:53
which i believe is what usually people
02:57
mean when they ask how long it takes um
03:01
two days three days maximum
03:04
yeah the final outcome of you know of
03:07
the whole process
03:09
right
03:17
my interest in the nature of being in
03:20
the
03:20
intangible essence of self you know is
03:23
is ongoing which is why i titled my work
03:25
self-portrait not because
03:27
you know of course they’re not they
03:29
don’t look like me in any way shape or
03:30
form but
03:32
is the is the portrait of the intangible
03:35
self
03:37
the thing my work investigates really is
03:40
the
03:40
issue of self-identity what what is that
03:43
self to
03:44
with what does one uh
03:47
identify oneself regardless of race
03:50
gender
03:50
or nationality even the only thing i can
03:53
say is that we all have that common
03:55
inheritance which is that
03:57
the self the the essence of self
04:00
is intangible it’s invisible
04:04
we don’t even know what its nature is
04:07
um we don’t know whether indeed it is it
04:11
has a location within the human brain
04:14
um so that is it’s a common it’s
04:18
something that is common to everybody
04:19
you know with
04:21
there’s no color there there’s no male
04:23
female is
04:24
is just the self and it acts itself out
04:27
as on a day-to-day basis the only thing
04:29
we know about it is that
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