{"id":217814,"date":"2025-05-02T00:39:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/of-movement-materials-and-methods-ninu-nina-artist-interviews\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T00:39:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:39:51","slug":"of-movement-materials-and-methods-ninu-nina-artist-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=217814","title":{"rendered":"Of Movement, Materials and Methods \u2014 Ninu Nina Artist Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Inspired by the pageantry of the Ojude Oba<\/em> festival, Fadugba\u2019s latest body of work marks a dramatic shift\u2014from her signature themes of water and solitude to a new exploration of land, ritual, and communal identity. \u201cOjude Oba is gesture, is choreography, is memory,\u201d<\/em> Fadugba explains. \u201cIt\u2019s a living archive of Yoruba pride and continuity. I was drawn to its elegance and its assertion of who we are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

With gold leaf, layered textures, and a blazing palette that mirrors the festival\u2019s vibrance, Fadugba paints the rhythm of riders, the shimmer of beaded regalia, the thunder of drumming feet. \u201cThe aesthetics of orientation and alignment, or their absence\u2014echo the musings of my mind,\u201d<\/em> she says, referencing the tension she sees between Nigeria\u2019s past and future.<\/p>\n

Many of Fadugba\u2019s earlier works centered on water\u2014particularly swimming as a metaphor for survival, memory and identity. Growing up by the sea in Lom\u00e9, Togo, water first evoked fear. \u201cThe idea that this endless expanse of water could take you to an unknown place overwhelmed me,\u201d<\/em> she recalls. Later, she came to see contained water\u2014like swimming pools\u2014as symbols of aspiration and belonging. \u201cWithin that specific context, I saw that (contained) bodies of water could be emblematic of the American dream.\u201d <\/em>Her acclaimed Synchronized Swimmers<\/em> series became a powerful metaphor for Black excellence, community, and discipline. Now, with Of Movement, Materials and Methods<\/em>, she transitions from water to land, but the current of introspection runs just as deep.<\/p>\n

In this new solo exhibition, beading becomes central not just aesthetically, but politically. Collaborating with local artisans, Fadugba weaves together traditional techniques with modern narratives. \u201cBeading, for me, is a way to touch the past,\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a language of hands. It carries the weight of women\u2019s work, of trade, of inheritance.\u201d <\/em>Her practice resonates with what she calls \u201cpatriotic worrying,\u201d<\/em> a term borrowed from Ai Weiwei. \u201cMuch of my work revolves around Nigeria\u2014what it was, what it could be. I think of Chinua Achebe\u2019s falling apart of structures. And I wonder: do we return to ancestral culture, or do we borrow wisdom from other nations?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Of Movement, Materials and Methods<\/em> will ask the viewer to engage not just with color and craft, but with identity, tradition, and nationhood in flux. For a city shaped by its post-colonial diaspora, Fadugba\u2019s work speaks directly to questions of belonging, history, and cultural navigation. This is art that doesn\u2019t just hang\u2014it pulses, it sings, it asks. \u201cThrough intricate detailing and layered surfaces, my hope is to capture the rhythm of drumming, the choreography of the riders, and the brilliance of the attire,\u201d<\/em> Fadugba says. \u201cI want viewers to feel the movement\u2014of bodies, of histories, of time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Of Movement, Materials and Methods<\/em> runs from May 22 to June 29 at Gallery 1957<\/a> in London. For anyone interested in contemporary African art, in stories told with grace and fire, in work that reaches across borders and generations\u2014this is the show of the season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n