By Prisca Sam-Duru

In Igbo culture, it is a taboo to present kolanut to a woman kolanut while entertaining visitors, not to speak of letting her break it. That task is reserved for the eldest male present at the time and it is one of the most sacred traditions of the Igbos.  That tradition appears to be threatened now by the millennial children.

In an exhibition titled “Gbam! Unearthing and Reclaiming a New Becoming”, a photography exhibition featuring six avant-garde fashion photographers, Lex Ash, with one of his works, “Ekpere”, pushes strongly for gender equality, a situation in which women will become red cap chiefs and also allowed to break the kolanut.

“Considering the push towards gender equality, my take is to redefine what perfection and agreement really mean to the tune of what modernization has done to improve the social standing and general appreciation of women in our society. We’ve come through different stages of being – antipathy, apathy, sympathy, empathy and we’re at the point of affinity,” Ash said.

“Gbam!” which is supported by Louis Guntrum Wines and the Wheatbaker is co-curated by A White Space Creative Agency and SMO Contemporary Art. It opened June 9 and runs till September 15th, 2018.

“Gbam! Unearthing and Reclaiming a New Becoming”, consisting of 25 photographs, questions our continual unearthing, uncovering, discovering and re-imagining perfection by drawing on our history and identity as Africans. It presents evocative photographs by Daniel Obasi, Kadara Enyeansi, Kola Oshalusi, Chidi “Lex Ash”    Ashimole,    Noma Osula and Ola Ebiti, which explore who we are, and who we aspire to become.

These bold, new-generation photographers sift through our rich fashion, culture, traditions, narratives and symbols to challenge our aesthetic identity as we project a renewed understanding of perfection from a millennial standpoint.

While Ash’s photographs are already generating controversies and conversations, in “Sho”, Noma Osula’s powerful portraits of perfectly chiseled tribal marks across his subject’s striking Bantu features makes one wonder whether tribal marks as a form of identity will ever be in vogue again. Osula explores traditional scarification and our concept of beauty and traditional symbolism against the interplay of striking whimsical adornment.

Kola Oshalusi’s documentary depiction of youth in Northern Nigeria presents an emotional naiveté, a clustering of untainted stillness and repose within an arid, harsh landscape. His powerful black and white images present a lyrical expose of young adults, always in clusters, facing forward with resilience despite their stark surroundings.

Daniel Obasi, a self-taught photographer who takes on a rather symbolic and metaphorical approach to his works, is attracted to old cinema and afro futurism. He insists that despite having a cultural background and history that is colorful, exuberant and often flamboyant, Nigeria is constantly influenced by western opinions and ideals on everything from education to fashion. His project therefore, “is a fantasy that strives to juxtapose this modern day Nigerian fashion against a traditional atmosphere; an exaggerated attempt at creating characters that are perfectly in sync with traditional styles and modern elements.”

Kadara Enyeasi, a self-trained fine art photographer and a 2016 finalist in the National Art Competition said, “I picked up references to religion, culture and also the male gaze to explore. I decided to contrast traditional religion versus sexuality.”

“Gbam!” showcases the exciting diversity of images currently being created by a new generation of Nigerian visual artists,” explained Papa Omotayo, exhibition co-curator and founder of a White Space Creative Agency. The works, he said are “fluid, referential, charged with self-reflection and steeped in the narrative and contradictions of modern contemporary African identity and style.”

For Wheatbaker’s long standing art curator and founder of SMO Contemporary Art, Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, “Gbam!” broadens the common perception of fashion photography as an art form, and spreads its tentacles wide to provide socio-economic critique as it questions perfection vis-à-vis identity, equality and traditional norms and expectations,”