Interrogating These Resent Times

Chinyere Akachukwu is not your known artist. The self-taught artist, who is a United Kingdom-trained lawyer, in her second show, which started on October 17, 2021 at Miliki in Victoria Island, Lagos, and ends on November 7, interrogates the need to document.

With about 18 artworks ranging from the postponed Olympic Games to Children’s educational plight, Women’s battle with gender specifications and limitations, and the onslaught of COVID-19 pandemic, she tries to tell stories with her work.

The show raises awareness on social issues in these times, as well as, addresses the deficiencies in historical documentation of events through the years. It highlights the dangers of undocumented history in the development of a society.

Titled, These Resent Times, and curated by Hannah Ogene, interrogates the need to document history and educate people on social causes. It educates viewers on issues arising as well as proffer art as a solution, while also encouraging the advancement of art as a means of educating people on social causes.

According to Akachukwu, “I have always felt my art should be able to serve a multitude of purposes. This feeling was heightened during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A lot of reflection during the times, as well as, discussions with different people had led me to deeply study the society I was in.”

She adds, “some issues began to flag my attention such as provisions for historical documentation, security and insecurity , public administration, emigration, the girl child , public health protocols, social media culture and capitalism. The considerations of these issues ultimately led me to my inspiration for the creation of the present body of work in These Resent Times.”

She continues, the work “is in no way intended to be dispiriting but rather calls on the viewers to take an intentional look at the works in search for meaning.”

It is a play on words for these present times and these recent times, saying that “the works are intended to serve not just an aesthetic purpose but also as a forum for contemplation, reflection and means of record keeping of the issues.”

She continues, “I chose to find ways to capture society as it was through different lenses. A large portion of the works speak of issues that are quickly identified by the viewers.”

The different pieces speak of varying issues including management of public infrastructure, board diversity, etcetera.

The two series in the body of works expound on certain issues for emphasis. The Green Riding Hood series explores issues of insecurity as well as child care and the girl child in the society. Surviving The Resentful Times series are pieces that serve as reminders that present issues being faced by the viewers, if any, are merely hurdles to be overcome with the right mind set.

According to Akachukwu, “my intention was to create a space for sober reflection of the issues in the society, some which we know all too well, and others that are fairly new issues in light of the present times. An important purpose of the works will therefore be served once the viewer understands and/or relates with the issues being portrayed.”

For Ogene, Akachukwu followed her passion and took to rendering artworks. In her earlier years, she started with looking introspectively and using her artworks to deal with her own emotions as an individual within society.

Ogene says Akachukwu looked outside of herself “in order to make raw observations about society enough to document what has happened so that when one wants a historical and retrospective look at what times were like for Nigerians 20 years after the Millenium, they would have a subjective view of the world and significant events that happened for the people of Nigeria.”

Her first exhibition, The Works of My Hands, in 2019, was an introspective foray of artworks spawned from her yearning to shed light on her innate talent for capturing her subject.

Since her first exhibition, her artistic skills have been honed not only through her standpoint of looking outwards and making a commentary on what is affecting society at large but also through the maturing of her style of painting.

Her legal profession has given her the wherewithal to look at the things that affect everyone in society, and her external viewpoint has been able to elevate her craft to make a stand about what has been happening in her environ and her country.

“The fact that the times are not the best for Nigeria cannot be ignored, which is why the title of the exhibition is a tongue in cheek play on words. The resentful aspect ratio of how Nigerians view their country is more in favour of leaning on gloom and feelings of anxiety, anger, frustration are not avoidable in the recent times of residing in Nigeria. Akachukwu is merely trying to document the general consensus of the feelings of Nigerians contemporarily,” Ogene says.

Ogene says the different events that Akachukwu covers in her paintings show her concern for the country and by pointing out imbalances and resentment through observation and worldliness.

To be able to look beyond oneself and be an observer of society at large takes a maturity and coming of age to execute.

In some of her works, her positive hopes for the country are visible and encouraging a leaves the viewers with a hopefulness that the resent times will end soon.