You can experience a part of the Igbo culture of eastern Nigeria at Guilford College. On display in the Art Gallery of Hege Library, “Lyrical Lines: The Works of Obiora and Ada Udechukwu” will transport you to another world where poetry and painting seduce the senses.
The words and works of the two contemporary African artists come together at Guilford for a complementary display of talent.
The Udechukwus have exhibited at the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, D.C., in Germany, and the United Kingdom.
They are members of the Nsukka Group of artists. The Smithsonian describes the Nsukka artists as “emerging as a major group of contemporary African artists who link the skilled artistry of the past with the present.”
The Udechukwu’s use of the traditional art form called uli accomplishes this link between past and present by presenting ancient design through modern techniques, using pens, silkscreen, and lithograph, for example.
The most dramatic difference between traditional uli and contemporary interpretations is the surface on which it is painted.
Traditional uli was “primarily a women’s artform [that] utilized decorative patterns and symbols to beautify women’s bodies and the walls of their homes and compounds,” said Terry Hammond, Director and Curator of the Art Gallery.
Uli is a rare art form because of the difficulty in collecting such pieces.
The Udechukwus’ interpretations of uli bring the two-dimensional works to new, easier-to-display mediums (paper and cloth as opposed to skin and walls).
“This exhibition helps bring light to another realm of traditional African art,” Hammond said. “It is part of a larger project, which was initiated by the Friends of the Guilford College Library and draws on three special features of Guilford College – the setting of the Gallery in Hege Library, the curriculum’s strong emphasis on international and intercultural studies, and the Quaker emphasis on ethical issues – to explore the relationship of literature and art in expressing cultural values.”
One such cultural value is described by the Nsukka group. “In Igbo life, the aesthetics of beauty is equated with morality,” the group believes. The goal of original Igbo art was largely aesthetic. Igbo designs on the body lasted less than one week. Igbo women painted their bodies for important ceremonial events like weddings or funerals.
Interestingly,the Smithsonian notes that while earlier uli artists were mainly women, today they are mainly men.
Traditional uli (painting on the body or on walls) is rarely performed today, but many Nigerian artists, including the Udechuckwus, have participated in a resurgence of the art form and are displaying it through new mediums.