By Prisca Sam-Duru

A total of eleven digital paintings and collages produced by Yasmin Teniola Idris, were on display at the amphitheatre of Freedom Park, Broadstreet, Lagos, at an event held during the week to usher in the artist’s latest project.  

Yasmin, a multidisciplinary artist currently completing her MA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, also premiered a Short Film which is part of her New Age Matrix (NAM) project; a multidisciplinary Afrofuturism project exploring young party culture, heritage and identity through a story inspired by the original matrix trilogy.

The project, designed to be thought provoking, empowering and at the same time, challenges societal norms, is split into 6 phases, exploring different forms of visual art. The event celebrated Yasmin’s New Age Matrix journey through a premiere of the Short Film (phase 6) and the exhibition showcasing her works.

As a multidisciplinary artist, Yasmin investigates the combination of the digital and physical spaces, using storytelling to decompose colonial nuances embedded in Nigerian culture with the use of Afrofutrism.

She navigates the sci-fi world using her identity, heritage and vernacular while finding the balance of the physical and digital realms.

 The Virtual Tour which is phase 3 of the project, is Yasmin’s first solo exhibition featuring works examining human relationship with technology and, time in the New Age Matrix universe. 

 The eleven works covering digital paintings, collages, print & digital mediums, explore the story’s themes using her unique style. Interestingly, the art works take viewers through a journey of pain and self-realisation, while reflecting the narrative of the characters in the NAM universe who become aware of their reality by interrogating the concepts of a pre-colonial world.

One of the pieces exhibited, ‘The Power Within’, is a beautiful image showing two palms, in an exercise that appears to be tearing the heart apart. ‘The Power Within’, according to the artist, “Shows how the matrix is when you are self-aware and fighting against the system designed to keep you from your full potential”.

Another interesting art work is ‘Fallen’. Fallen is a digital painting showing a head-like image also torn apart. It explores the concept of feeling stuck in a system designed against someone.”It’s really hard to say exactly what inspired the project because it was a whole bunch of things. From coming back to Nigeria after six years and watching the Matrix on the plane; the movie inspired different ideas I have. I’m particular about using sci-fi to decolonise our minds to think differently from how we do now”, Yasmin says about what inspired the project.

“The first Matrix triggered my thoughts on how certain things have been designed to make us live in certain way and I started to think about how that affects black and, African people and how the system has been designed to oppress us”, she added.

 The art project is therefore nudging Africans to take back their power. “We need to stop thinking that the way forward is by looking at what the West is doing. We need to start looking within and start thinking of the way we look at the future. It’s important that we reflect who we are as a people and think past the pre-colonial days”.

A The trained architect who has been an artist all her life couldn’t have found a better medium to express herself other than art. “Even when I was doing my architecture, it was very art centred and focused and after graduating, I decided to focus more and progress as an artist”. That way Yasmin has been able to express herself, as “someone who is constantly thinking about why we are here, what are we doing, why is the world the way it is, why do we live the way we do; like we are constantly fighting battles. I always think about that even in my happy moments”

Vanguard News Nigeria