By JAPHET ALAKAM
Recovering from the infamous strike by labour and civil society group that paralyzed economic activities in the country early in the year, Nike Art gallery is set to kick start art activities this season with a solo exhibition by a mixed medium artist and writer, Peju Alatise.

The one week show titled, Material Witness, an exhibition of artworks and installation projects of Peju Alatise will open on 24th of March at the famous Nike Art gallery, Lekki, Lagos.

*Nine year old Bride, one of the works to be exhibited

As usual with Material Witness, the Ladoke Akintola University trained architecture who has done a lot of artworks on women that capture the joys and pains of womanhood as experienced here in modern Africa with her planned exhibition revisit the issues of women.

After two years research, the multi-talented artist intends to use the body of her recent works explore diverse ways in which materials can be transformed into creative vichicles. She is of the opinion that materials speak and will in this show project the witnessing by materials over and against the usual human witness.

Material Witness according to her is both relevant to the matter at issue and is also required in order to resolve the matter. “In this instance the truth as experienced by the witness may not be the entire truth for it is mostly subjective to the witness, but remains nevertheless a critical contribution to arriving at the bigger truth.”

Material Witness (Pun Intended) is a body of artworks and installation projects with several layers of approach to them, all in search of truth; of which no one layer can remain independent of the others as it gives credence to others. The three main layers are the thematic, materials/medium and the technical execution of style.

“The ideas which inform the theme and instigate my formal concerns are not more important than the mediums and materials used or the composition and overall appearance of the artworks. Every process is an integral part that leads to the other.” She said.

The show which  features about 20 works will be in three parts, first, the commentaries that will look at issues from the traditional, political, social and religious angles as in areas where there is an idealistic yearning for justice, Second, the Idealistic verses Realistic, and finally,the Material elements of nature like water, wind, earth and fire.

Continuing, she added that “Material Witness (pun intended) is the idea that the ‘material’ is the witness. The idea that an inanimate object can be made to speak in a visual composition of its experiences as though it indeed had life and memory. The expression “if these walls could speak … “ comes to mind.

In the works, Peju carefully uses materials overly exposed to human usage by reforming them into useful, even glorious objects. In some of the works, the array of materials are so many and mind boggling, but she is able to convert them into aesthetic instruments that render them as narrative codes.

Some of the works to be exhibited include: Freedom is like a sailboat, That thing within, Compatriots, Purple Period(lest I forget 1,2,3) Half of the story, Where is her mother, Nine year old Bride, Captain red tape, Judgment day, The line up and others .