ByJAPHET ALAKAM

Barely few months after his return from residency in the UAE, sculptor and lecturer at Yaba College of Technology, Adeola Balogun is back to the exhibition hall again with another solo exhibition titled Mirage; an exhibition of sculptures and drawings.

•Veiled, one of the works by Balogun

The exhibition which focuses on his experimental encounters in recent times in some areas he visited and other issues that has happened in Nigeria, especially, the case of the abducted Chibok girls which has caused a lot of damage to the image of Nigeria and the expectations of the people towards their release opened yesterday at Quintessence gallery, Admiralty way, Lekki, Lagos and is expected to run till December 12, 2014 .

Balogun who is imbued with the idea born out of the need to give meaning to items and objects that have lost their primary purpose, like tyres, mesh, iron sponge, aluminiun plates, charcoal etc is presenting over 30 works that he did recently to the world, 22 drawings and 8 sculptures.

Speaking on the title, Balogun disclosed that he is using the works as a metaphor to reflect on the some issues in Nigeria especially the missing girls and what the federal government are doing about it. To him, the days has gone to weeks, months and no one prays it goes to years, but on the surface with what is going on it is like it has become a mirage, which no one prays it will.

In this exhibition, Balogun who is noted for his sculptural pieces is presenting about 22 drawings compared to 8 sculptures, something that can be seen as a departure from from his previous shows.

Making reference to folklores and legend and the lessons thereof, for example using the Aladin and the magic lamp story, Balogun tried to connect man to the universe, pointing out that life is just a matter of attracting whatsoever we think. These he reflected in some of the sculptural pieces.

•Through our heart, one of the works by Balogun

In another group, the artists highlights some of the ills in the society especially corruption in some of the works like Through her heart, a metal work depicting what happens in our hearts. Hiding place,a 2d piece made with tyre and aluminium. In it he says that there is always a hiding place in Nigeria and that is why many evils thrive, while Protective Ring, a metaphor that connotes the fact that the evil doers are known but nothing happens to them.

In the last group featuring drawings like Mirage 1-3, Veiled series, the artist takes a visual look at the trauma of the parents of the Chibok girls are facing, the challenges faced by the female folk and why much attention is not given to women and others. One of the images depicts a mother that is perplexed with the situation at hand or viewed as a mother who is expectant that may be the girls will be back. There is also a picture of a woman in celebration mood, a situation many look up to when the girls finally comes back.

In his artistic statement, Balogun said, “My works are reflective of either a spontaneous engagement or long contemplation on my visual encounters which are usually transient but memorable. I often engage in resuscitation of seemingly ‘dead’ discarded objects by redirecting the inherent energy in order to offer them a new lease of life imbued with fresh multilayered meaning pertinent to my sensibilities.

The desire to articulate my perception and conception in a tangible format is a constant nudge in my creative impulse. I leverage on accessible material to connect and distil my visual encounters.”

Continuing, he stated that, “My charcoal drawing serves as a spontaneous exercise and channel through which the real and surreal coalesce to reference my multiple cultural interactions in recent time. The spontaneity in my rhythmic and cross-hatched lines with varied thicknesses with dramatic rendering alludes to the notion of people’s divergent perspective and opinion on a particular issue which is often determined by numerous