IN the art world, textile designing is often considered more traditional and less creative. Dr. Rita Doris Ubah of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), has demonstrated the entrepreneurial potential of textile art.

At a solo exhibition, which held at the Senior Staff Club of the school, the don decorated the clubhouse with art works principally made with fabrics. The exhibition, titled, TJANTING Lives On had on display over 100 woven and knitted designs such as knitted blankets, batik prints and shirts, knitted dolls, appliquéd, quilted wall hangings produced in panels of geometric shapes and dyed by means of exploring secondary and tertiary colours.

Equally engaging at the show were various types of duvet, functional textile materials suitable for bedspreads, knitted hand and travelling bags, winter cold protective cloths and knitted kitchen towels.

The exhibition was creatively radiated with the decorative pots called Aso-ebi series, which were painted with acrylic colours, fibres, and supportive materials to create that monumental feeling of longingness.

There were also sampled office chairs made with colourful fabrics. According to the artist, stockfish sellers abandoned the skeletal parts of the chairs. And sitting on the chairs were slippers designed with fabrics of high durability.

“This work is an infusion of culture and modernity, the university is happy with Dr. Ubah’s academic and artistic development,” the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Edwin Igbokwe, said while speaking on behalf of the Vice Chancellor.

Igbokwe described the works as commercially viable products, and expressed the willingness of the administration to interface between the artist and the textile industry.