My dad loves pictures. I consider my childhood very well documented. Better documented than my teens which were spent in boarding school and with my head in a book. For the most part, I considered photography utilitarian. That isn’t to say that I didn’t consider its product worthy of awe, it was just that to me taking pictures was for nothing more than documenting. To me, photos were taken, not made.
I’m older now and I now appreciate photography for the artistic practice it is. I like and sometimes love taking pictures and I enjoy the work of so many photographers. I visited a few exhibitions a few weekends ago that I really enjoyed. Both artists I will be speaking about use photography in their work. The first was a solo exhibition called Face Me I Face You by David Otaru at Rele Gallery.
David Otaru explores the financial hardship of his childhood by constructing interior scenes that welcome you to partake if you wish. The work is littered with objects which trigger nostalgia and ordinary people doing ordinary things. As the proprietor of his own memory, Otaru shares his past by inserting family photographs into the pictures. The acrylic paintings are partly done in negative black and white which insist on your participation (with a camera) to view the whole scene. David Otaru extends his generosity by providing a physical living room scene complete with an old tv set, benches and a family album. Here are photos from the exhibition.
The second exhibition was a group exhibition of female collage artists at KO Artspace called Austere Imaginary. I liked the other artists showing but I was there for Mobolaji Ogunrosoye. I have followed her for a while and I really enjoyed her work. Mobolaji is an artist who is currently exploring photography and the use of glass and transparent material. Her older work shown in the exhibition is an assembly of photographs over each other to reveal the depths of a face. She often manipulates the photo through editing and the paper by cutting and burning it. A glance from any angle affords you a fresh perspective of her subject. Her work shows a deep study of image-based narratives and all the possibilities that can arise from subtraction. Here are photos from the exhibition.
