‘I’m interested in the ways cloth, especially in African societies, is representative of personality and identity’

Nnenna Okore is an internationally acclaimed artist from Nnsukka, Southern Nigeria and studied there with El Anatsui  – (renowned for his beautiful large-scale drapes from bottle-tops). She gained her masters in Ohio and now lectures in Chicago and distilled her art in USA through the deep impression  the wasteful society made on her. She sculpts with paper, remarking that in Nnsukka it’s re-used in many ways and not simply discarded. She also uses clay, and make both materials behave unusually. A social awareness informs her creativity.  Okore’s contemporary, writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun) , also from Nnsukka, proudly opened the exhibition.

** This article was orginally published in December 2008**

CAV: The October Gallery exhibition features many more of your recent works that use clay. Is paper – as a material – still as important to you?
Nnenna Okore: The explorations with paper continue to evolve and I’m using different processes. I’m adding colour, dying and waxing it. I’ve also gained more interest in working with clay. Rather than conform to stereotypes of ceramics, I’m stretching it, working  in unique ways – taking the hardness of clay and softening it – making it more fabric-like with a kind of ironic relationship. There are differences between the two materials but they have commonalities – alluring textures, beautiful colours. I have a very strong fascination for undulating forms and I visualise these when working with the material so there is always some kind of draping going on.

CAV: What are your works saying?

Nnenna Okore: I use Igbo names that all have an association with social structures relating to the meaning of cloth. My works embody the idea of free form and fluidity and Ulukububa (butterfly) is suggestive of those ideas: I’m comparing the butterfly with the forms I’m creating. Other titles like Ashiobi, Oriako, Asheoke represent different cultural associations to beauty, elegance, recivity, dance. I’m interested in the ways cloth, especially in African societies, is representative of personality and identity and idiosyncracies – I’m exploring how society is driven by dress culture.

CAV: Where do you work and where do you get ideas?
Nnenna Okore: I do most of my thinking in the studio which is also where I  work – I get ideas in the oddest places: driving , resting,  playing with my  kids, drawing randomly… In the air, seeing arrays of city lights gleaming like clusters of beads. Everything, whether manmade or natural environments, is a source of inspiration.

CAV: How do you balance lecturing and being an artist?
Nnenna Okore: It’s incidental. I always show my students work I have a resonance to, connecting with artists I admire. It’s an interesting question – when I have bouts of ideas I bring them to students to work with. It’s a source of learning for me watching them  exploring things I don’t get a chance to do myself and I find I understand material  concepts  through them and re-understand myself.

CAV: Who are these artists you admire?
Nnenna Okore: First and foremost El Anastui -my mentor, I really admire Magdalena Abakonowicz for her use of textures and sheer monumentality. If there’s one thing I aspire to it’s that monumentality because I think it brings a very special charge and ambience to the piece, it transforms space in a big way. Yinka Shonibare is spectacular …. Anna Mandiato’s works are charging.

CAV: What is your major ambition for somewhere to exhibit?
Nnenna Okore: I’ve always imagined my works blown up to overgrown comforting structures people could find themselves inside of. I want an intimacy with the piece beyond gallery walls. The next level I see for my work is in architectural spaces and structures – anywhere from outdoors, incorporated with nature to a large alternative space.  I‘d love a big gallery or museum installation – but I want spaces that tie into tactile qualities of my work.