The nature of my birth already placed me within a world of crossroads. My body constantly Traversing between cultures. Living And travelling across different parts of Nigeria (Kano, Lagos, Abuja, Asaba, Anambra, Zaria. This gives me a cosmopolitan bird's eye view of the country, with an interesting perspective on the subject of cultural identity in the Nigerian context. This have significantly influenced both my artistic and philosophical reflections on a varieties of topic.
Taken the above into consideration my works draws upon the subjects of Violence, identity, heritage, pragmatism, aesthetic, space and movement. Part of my work are sublimely political and addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror, and fear in Nigeria, through symbolic representations of traumatic memory and social suffering. I engage with questions of how an artistic process (using dance, film, images, stories, text etc.) can channel these powerful human tragedies and emotions, and to what effect?
My others questions are abstract and philosophical focusing on the relationship between dance and labour? What has dance got to do with fiction? How does modern technology portray the dancing body? What ethical questions does dance raise in the 21st century? What are the ethical challenges of making art about real life , real people in a world of real politics?
As a pragmatist, I study Aesthetic from a practical and utilitarian position. Beyond subjective experiences of beauty, I delve into the practicality of movement systems, to explore how our our capacity to move in space , to feel things and to act on materials, provided an evolutionary advantage to our emotive and material survival.
In the execution of my works i combine performance with installations, photography, sublimation, texts, and film. My experiences ranges from the research and practice of dances and other gestural/movement forms from Nigeria and beyond. I use the Oratory of the Adanma masquerade theatre dance of eastern Nigeria, the energetic light-footed and the ecstatic rhythms of the sabar dance, and the polyphonic vibrations of the Maasai chants and rhythms. Together with techniques of improvisation, and contemporary art Co-opted from my work with prominent Choreographers like Qudus Onikeku, Shanon Stewart, Onye Ozuzu, Horacio Macququa, Jean luc Verna, etc. The interlocking of these diverse practices enable me to produce works that are both ethnographically compelling as evidence of thorough research, and artistically stimulating.
