In Now I Know Why Birds Fly, Olarinde leaves worries behind

For many artists, the COVID-19 period was that of isolation characterised by time distortion due to the collapse of regular time trackers such as neighbours heading out for work, the trash truck collecting daily waste, school children heading off to/ from school in noisy groups and other signs of a passing day.

Dear You, one of the works on display

Reeling off the forced year of introspection, Olarinde approaches the reopening of the world with a sense of thirst, as if to drink up every drop of time for fear of waste. 

This psychological disposition results not just in hunger to feel more, but also to be more conscious and reflective of this feeling.
 
Now I Knout Why Birds Fly serves as a journal of youthful reemergence with its tongue in a stream of life. It’s a journal of recollections painted with the surreal signature motif of the artist’s mind trying to make tangible the mental and visceral taste of life fleeting in time, as it moves from one moment to the next.

Here, Olarinde employs different modes of expression to covey varying layers of her lived experiences.