00:00 Today was a solo art exhibition by a Nigerian artist titled "Eniyo, an Escape Room"
00:05 31 new paintings, 5 site-specific sculptures and a soundgasm.
00:10 Join me as we explore the art with the artist.
00:13 Come!
00:14 Escape Room is presented in 6 unique rooms, each characterized by a distinct color corresponding
00:21 to the similar emotional states, namely the blue room, yellow, white, red, green and black
00:28 rooms.
00:29 By entering each distinct room, visitors are encouraged to see themselves reflected within
00:33 the narrative woven by Yusuf's artistry.
00:35 A lot of people are not art literate, so if you were to describe your style of art, how
00:40 would you explain it to a 5 year old?
00:43 Okay, well my art has a name, which is "Ainoizen", which is coined from my name "Aino"
00:51 and that's because I was born with the umbilical cord around my neck, so I call it the art
00:56 of life because I survived death, during childbirth and also, so if I'm to like literally explain
01:04 it to like a 5 year old, I'll say my art is the art of human journey, the human navigation
01:14 of life.
01:15 Wow, how did you start making, you know, painting or you know, how did you get into this space
01:21 in general?
01:22 In art?
01:23 Yes.
01:24 I always see my brother, my older brother drawing when I was younger.
01:30 My dad, I've seen him create like sign writing because he used to be like a commercial artist
01:35 back then in the 90s.
01:39 Yeah, so your background gave you a little bit of comfortability because you had people
01:43 that somewhat had experience about expressing yourself through...
01:47 Yes, yes.
01:48 So, yeah, it was art was basically what I leveraged on to be myself, with myself, to
01:55 have conversations with something that is always with me if there's nobody, you understand?
02:02 So, and I've always wanted to like be very good at it, like get better in anything I
02:07 do, I always want to be better.
02:09 Slash it everywhere.
02:10 Yes.
02:11 So before you, you know, before you found I Know Ism, did you thread other parts, other...
02:18 Yes, I did.
02:19 Oh, okay.
02:20 Can you tell us about that?
02:21 Yeah, I did.
02:22 I started drawing curtains.
02:23 Oh, okay.
02:24 You know, drawing from Super Strikers books, you know, reference from them in primary school,
02:31 drawing Santa Claus on the blackboard, you know, with chalk back then, you know, drawing
02:35 Tom and Jerry, drawing from movie parks, basically drawing what I see and also from pictures
02:40 and also from what I see in front of me.
02:43 So all those were, you know, things that helped me to like get better.
02:46 I always draw every day.
02:48 Can I ask how long it took to make these pieces?
02:51 I always say about 11 months.
02:54 Yeah, about 11 months.
02:56 So but with ideas, two years, generating the idea, two years.
03:01 This is the first time ever walking into, you know, an art gallery or an art space,
03:06 you know, that put thought into the flow.
03:08 And I have to commend you, you know, extremely for that.
03:11 The process of installing this show, what I remember was, you know, me trying to make
03:20 sure I achieve coloring the stones.
03:22 You know, the floor was a big deal.
03:25 I came across different challenges, changed a lot of things, used my backup plans on how
03:31 to execute, you know, and the stones are hand painted stones.
03:35 I can tell.
03:36 And it took a lot of time, you know, to put them together.
03:41 You know, having my friends support me, you know, their labor, like hand mixed, about
03:48 40 tons of stones.
03:50 But looking at this one right in front of me, how do you determine when an art piece
03:54 is done?
03:55 An art piece is never done because there's the stage of creating the art, there's the
04:01 stage of knowing the art is ready to be seen.
04:06 What finishes an art piece is the experience it derives.
04:10 And it's still not finished because people always have something new to experience from
04:14 the work.
04:15 So an artwork is not based on what you're seeing, it's also based on how it is responded
04:21 to.
04:22 And the response will always keep changing and evolving and seen in different ways.
04:26 Do you have any favorite pieces?
04:28 Yeah, I have favorite pieces from each room.
04:32 I have one major favorite piece, which is a piece called A Breath Away, the yellow room.
04:39 And that has like a lot of details in the content.
04:44 This particular one we're looking at.
04:46 It's called A Breath Away and it focuses on that period, on that area where I was so overwhelmed
04:53 and trying to manage every situation that I was going through without even knowing and
04:58 I get entangled in all of them.
05:01 The flower in the piece symbolizes a sign of life, breath and freedom as well.
05:10 What it is I seek and what it is I want to have.
05:14 Currently we're in the blue room and also called the DEWS room.
05:20 DEWS?
05:21 Yeah, D-E-W-S.
05:22 So it's the abbreviation for depression.
05:24 It represents being emotional, W means worriness, S means sadness.
05:32 And also in this room we will find vulnerability, we will find love, we will find solitude and
05:39 we also find calmness as well.
05:44 The yellow room is denoted by P-U-F-I, which stands for procrastination, uncertainty, fear
05:49 and indecision.
05:51 Next is the white room.
05:52 The white room represents an intermediate state, like a process of transition.
05:57 Denoted by W-E-D, it stands for waiting, exiting and distraction.
06:03 Unlike the red room, the red room alludes feelings of pain, anger, ego, pride and love.
06:09 A symbol of vulnerability and strong emotions.
06:13 Next is the green room.
06:15 The green room signifies tranquility and euphoria denoted by R-G-B-P, which stands for ready,
06:21 go, bliss and peace.
06:23 The last room is the black room.
06:25 The black room symbolizes a state of mind that consumes all others.
06:29 This room is not only black, but also the only room with sound.
06:33 This immersive exhibition comprehensively represents Yusuf Aino's artistic practice
06:37 and a visual journal of his transformation from vulnerability to strength, self-awareness
06:43 and stillness.
06:44 This body of work consists of 31 new paintings, a site-specific installation and a soundscape,
06:50 all serving as portals into Aino's art through altered physical spaces, experimentation and
06:56 symbolism.
06:57 I've noticed some things, you know, in the sculptures.
07:00 They have slashes on them.
07:02 Yes, so one thing you need to know about my sculptures are, my sculptures are real, real
07:08 life representations of what my paintings are.
07:10 The mark symbolizes layers of experiences, you know.
07:15 Injuries.
07:16 Injuries or...
07:17 Experiences.
07:18 Experiences, exactly.
07:18 When asked about limitations as a Nigerian artist, he had this to say.
07:25 There's the financial area, which is like the first big deal, because if there's no
07:29 money, no art to create.
07:32 Two is the support system of the art space.
07:35 You know, artists are struggling with...
07:38 I struggled with acceptance of my work based on the dynamics of what people are showing
07:43 now or something.
07:44 There's also the challenge of the economy and the system of how our art is being portrayed.
07:55 There's how we are seeing art.
07:58 It's just now that a lot of things have really changed because of how we are portraying art,
08:03 where we are placing art.
08:05 For example, what I'm showing now will definitely change a lot of perspectives of how art is
08:11 seen.
08:12 It can also be a form of healing, a form of therapy, which is what this show is about
08:16 too.
08:17 Accessibility, economy, financial profits to benefit us all.
08:22 Not just the artists.
08:24 Also in the escape room is a wishing wall where visitors are allowed to share their
08:28 experience and different emotions they felt during the exhibition, helping them understand
08:33 which room their mind is currently in.
08:35 That's the escape room.
08:37 I just want to say thank you to RetroAfrica for reaching out to bring this to life because
08:45 this has always been an imagination and now it's in real life and it came out as good
08:49 as I wanted it to be.
08:52 I'm really hoping to get to do more stuff and also Art21 for giving their space for
08:58 me to bring this to life as well.
09:01 It's been a really amazing journey and I hope this exhibition inspires other people to come
09:06 out of where they are currently at.
09:09 Thank you.
09:10 Artistry they say is a dance between skill and passion.
09:13 This particular exhibition will be on display at the Art21 spaces till the 6th of September
09:18 2023.
09:19 Which of the spaces struck you out the most?
09:22 Do tell us in the comment section.
09:23 My name is Lois Ogunyi for Guardian TV.
09:25 Bye for now.
09:25 [Music]
