By JAPHET ALAKAM

After over a decade of building her career through several group art exhibitions and full time studio practice, Olawunmi Banjo takes a step further to consolidate on her achievement with her first solo art exhibition titled Mind Revolution.

The exhibition which is scheduled to open at Nike Art Gallery, Lekki from November 1st to 7th, 2014, according to artists is tailored towards re-orientating the mindsets of people towards progressiveness, and how creative minds and ideas in Nigeria and Africa at large can be empowered. She said: “If people start to develop the initiative of thought to invest adequately in creative mind resources and ideas, then attention will be a bit deviated from focusing mainly on natural resources.

Conscious break, one of the works displayed

“From my observation as an artist, I have discovered that many creative talents are discouraged and frustrated in attaining their creative potential due to the lack of adequate structures and sufficient support. Our best export is human resources and capital. On a daily basis, we export our best and finest minds that we sorely need for our overall development.”

The works depict a child in a failed system but looking beyond the failed system and reaching towards achieving his potential. Regardless of the societal depravity, he still makes conscious efforts to have a positive mindset, which will enable him to make his environs relevant, and eventually to have a ripple effect. The exhibition, Mind Revolution, is to make us see that we are more than a consuming continent, particularly when we stop focusing mainly on natural resources and channel our mental productivity towards creative ideas and innovations that are globally relevant,which is very possible to achieve.

Our minds are the creative centre of our country and continent. We need a positive, progressive mind revolution to enable us to have a collective perception and reasoning to help rise above the tribal mentality, so that we can stop being a self-enslaving entity. !

In her artist statement, Olawunmi Banjo disclosed that “art is my passion and is the medium that I use to create my ideas, add value, and convey messages to the people. I am very optimistic about the development of Africa; in my works, I infuse the mindset needed to achieve this. I have found surrealism and realism useful in depicting my ideas. This enables people who view my works to grasp the embedded message in each piece.

“I am influenced mostly by things I see, experience, and feel. Most of my new body of artwork takes a mental depiction globe. Seeing that, the first thing that can be changed in the world is the mindset of an individual and how he perceives himself and his environment, then the next person, abilities due to some circumstances. They feel limited by their environs and do not bother to explore their inner potential and abilities.

Conscious Break, speaks about a world where conforming to a range of societal ideologies and structures keeps people bound in most of their thoughts and decisions, living a re-cycled life in order to secure complacency appears to be the norm. This to her may bring comfort but not fulfillment. While Consciously Thriving says that only visionaries and conscious mind survives and thrives in seemingly hopeless situations.