Victor Ehikhamenor: Portraits from a world in transition

Victor Ehikhamenor is on a mission to recount his country’s history and the newer influences shaping its future. The award-winning visual artist was born in Udomi-Uwessan, a small village in Edo State, Nigeria, which he left in 1994 during political turmoil.

Untitled, 2014 —

Mohau Modisakeng's images will haunt you. The South African artist readily admits his "preoccupation with violence". But these images and sculptures are not sensationalism or mere internet fodder. They're designed to spark a conversation on South Africa's recent history and its impact on personal identity, he says. From the country's political uprisings to the brutal stabbing of his brother, nothing is off limits.

Fossils (black), 2016 —

Fossils Black is a work that deceives the eye. Although it looks like a photograph, it is actually a scan. The artist made a cast of his face which was then broken into several pieces and arranged onto a scanner bed. "I grew up in a part of Soweto that witnessed a lot of conflict" he says. The 1990s saw bloody clashes between followers of the African National Congress (ANC) and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

Ga Etsho 1, 2015 —

He recollects one particular incident walking past dead bodies the morning after one of these conflicts. "I was quite young but I was able to recognize what I was looking at. Even though it wasn't really spoken about in my family", he explains.

Ga Etsho 3, 2015 —

Modisakeng says his artworks come from a history of violence that has not been dealt with and that people have been forced to forget. He references the Bang Bang Club - a group of photojournalists documenting the transition from apartheid within townships in the 90s: "The environment they were working in was the kind of environment I was growing up in".

Ga Etsho 6, 2015 —

Violence, labor, security - these are the influences generating a body of work referencing machetes, AK-47 rifles and Okapi - a type of flick knife.

Endabeni 1, 2015 —

Named after a suburb in Cape Town, the piece sees a lone figure dressed in white standing against a stark asphalt landscape and brandishing large industrial tools as if they were weapons. "Endabeni is actually very key in understanding where the South African structure of a town comes from because it was the first segregated structure in the whole of South Africa", Modasikeng explains.

Endabeni 2, 2015 —

"I knew I wanted my landscape to be strange and exotic and extraterrestrial" he says of Endabeni. For an earlier work, Modasikeng sculpted an Okapi during his fourth year at Michaelis School of Fine Art, in Cape Town. This was a deeply personal piece of artwork, surrounding the fatal stabbing of his brother who had been involved in grass roots movements, mobilizing people during the transition from apartheid.

Endabeni 8, 2015 —

Recalling memories surrounding such a tragic death: "I think my mum was looking through his things and she pulled out this white sweater which had a small stain on it, and under the stain was a cut. Apparently this is what my brother had been wearing on that day". The sculpture was a response not to the physical presence of his brother but his absence and what was unspoken. "I'm trying to understand the events around his passing". He adds "it was not something that we talked about at home".

Inzilo 1, 2013. —

Series Ga Ethso and Inzilo - "mourning" - dive deeper into the poignant way violence is such an integral part of South African history. He references the 2012 Ludlow Massacre, where mineworkers were shot by the police during a strike. "In subsequent reports, the use of traditional weapons is what led to or justified the kind of force used", he says. "There hasn't been any effort to address this violent history" he concludes.

South Africa's violent history in haunting artworks

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His latest project ‘American Invasion’ captures teenagers in the small village of southern Nigeria, donning western clothing despite its rural location.

Victor Ehikhamenor's American Invasion series

The town stands just outside of Benin City, which once served as the seat of old Benin Empire – a kingdom dating back to the 11th century. The artist is interested in the bridging of these two worlds.

Going back in 2009, “seeing some of the kids now dressed as Americans,” Ehikhamenor reflected. “I was wondering how the culture is getting to them, because there was only about maybe three or four people that have a TV in the village.”

In the series Ehikhamenor captures youths - set against a backdrop of African print fabrics - suggesting a context that jars with its subject matter.

“It was kind of interesting to look at that cross referencing of cultures,” he told CNN at London’s 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair earlier this month.

Before They Leave, a series of photos captured in 2010

Regarded as one of the most innovative contemporary artists to emerge from Nigeria, Ehikhamenor believes it is important that nuanced stories such as these are documented and retold through art.

His earlier series ‘Before They Leave’ aimed to preserve the memories of the older generations living in Benin, many of which are the parents of those captured in his American Invasion project.

“I realized that every time I travel back and visit my village, one person has died,” said Ehikhamenor. “These are the people that I grew up knowing as uncles, as aunts, they were vibrant, they were dancers, they were the ones that would make sure they disciplined you if you weren’t doing well at school.”

Those in the portraits had previously never been photographed.

“It’s scary how many of them have actually [since] passed away,” Ehikhamenor reflected.

A feminist riot

The Prayer Room installation at 2016 Dak'Art Biennale.

Among Lagos’ bohemian creatives, the artist has become a household name, earning the accolade of one of 42 African Innovators to Watch. After a formative career in the US spent producing abstract artworks detailing Nigeria’s political history, he returned in 2008 to creative direct Nigerian newspaper Next. At Dak’Art 2016 his colossal installation The Prayer Room was a much talked about main feature of the Biennale.

Ehikhamenor’s works are peppered with Nigeria’s colonial past – 1929 Girls of Aba Riot –conceptually recounts the “Women’s War” a period in Nigeria’s history where women in the provinces of Calabar and Owerri rioted against colonial rule.

“They didn’t have words like feminism [back then],” said Ehikhamenor. “They just realized that what was bad was bad so they went to work and empowered themselves.”

For him, Nigeria is the focal point from where stories begin.

“There is a parable in my village…you have food to eat at home but you go elsewhere and start begging for food it doesn’t make sense,” he explained. “So I’m constantly referencing Nigeria, I am constantly referencing my village. From there I expand to the world because it’s from that source that I see the world.”

Art awareness

Child Of The Sky installation piece by Victor Ehikhamenor.

The artist now wants to encourage younger generations to start using art as way of documenting lived experiences. He is soon to launch a gallery space in the country hoping to prepare kids for the commercial international art market.

“Creativity is the greatest job provider in our country at the moment,” said Ehikhamenor.

“You have photographers, you have writers, you have filmmakers so we have to figure out a way to harness this and make sure we don’t lose that traction and we don’t have people being discouraged.”

He believes the country’s biggest issue, when it comes to art is that national galleries are virtually non-existent. Although evolving, “there are not enough [art] collectors in Nigeria,” and therefore, “we have no equipped museum,” he declared.

He hopes that through greater art awareness, this will encourage homegrown collectors of Africa’s booming art market.

“It’s important for Nigerians to be aware of their works and art that is going on,” he said. “Instead of them going to Bonham’s 15 years from now and have to pay through their nose for it. From what they could’ve [purchased] at the back of their house.”

Through the new space, upcoming artist will learn, crucially, how to approach curators for exhibitions, and how to utilize social technology in creating a local and global platform.