'Ona' is the title of my upcoming solo-exhibition of paintings and drawings to be held at Terra Culture in Lagos Nigeria, from May 26 2012. Please click here to view the body of work
'Ona' (in Yoruba) means 'road' or 'way'. Life on earth can be metaphorically referred to as a journey. Just like journeys have a beginning and an end so does earthly life.
Roads daily facilitate our journey. Often this happens so naturally that we do not even think about them. Yet a road is a very significant reality and inevitability in our daily deliberations. Some roads are paved and wide, others are dusty and rough, yet others are very narrow.
Each will ultimately lead you to a destination. Ultimately the road or your use of it will come to an end.
This mirrors the reality of life and the fact that we are all on a part of the road or the other as we carry on in our time.
Ona, attempts to draw attention to this reality, by looking at roads or compositions that feature them, both representationally and metaphorically.
In this body or work, you will encounter wide roads, unpaved roads, flooded roads and even pit stops beside the road.
Each is a representation of where we are or can be at any given moment in time and each serves as a reminder that we will ultimately get to a destination.
Incidentally a wide and paved or desirable looking road can lead us where we do not want to be while a dusty and rough one can cause us to end up where we are ecstatic.
In many instances we may not have a choice what type of road we end up using but we have a choice of destination.
The journey begins on the inside and the road is actually in our heart. We will get to crossroads, give way to traffic, overtake and be overtaken. We may sometimes even reverse along the road.
What type of road are we on? What is our destination? How do we travel?
Let us be on our journey with a renewed sense of purpose.
Ona is the title of my upcoming solo-exhibition of paintings and drawings to be held at Terra Culture in Lagos Nigeria, from May 26 2012.
