What was Kent Onah thinking when he put humanity, space, aesthetics and identity in his canvas? What could have inspired the creative expression, Human Identity Space? What, exactly, was he trying to achieve with the pieces that make up his new show opening at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos on March 19?
These are some of the questions art enthusiasts will find answers to at the solo show, Human Identity Space, by the Auchi Polytechnic lecturer, Kent Onah.
With the show, which will run till March 28, Onah is featuring 27 paintings to seek a better world than he met it.
Onah has a very firm belief in art beyond aesthetics, as a functional tool of everyday living. Thematically, the solo is to interrogate the human identity space bearing in mind, “we do not have power over some of the experiences we pass through in life. In this human narrative, I try to showcase the human identity space. The complexity of the human person is such that each person is a complete universe of its own with different attendants. However, the human body is over emphasised against the other dimensions of the complete human being.”
The show is also to define human identity space for “our consciousness must go beyond our physical conscious experiences. Secondly, we must not rely on what others may put together as the psychology of the human person.”
According to Onah, the big question ‘who are you’ must be viewed from the different human dimensions that exist. “The truth is, we are more than our bodies; we are beyond the physical. We carry with us the different realms of existence that constitute the human space. Our collective experiences must go beyond our physical experiences to understand the human identity space.”
His current paintings invite the viewers to a serious reflection on what constitutes true personality, especially now that humanity lives in a distorted and ideologically different worlds. The 27 pieces explore the mental, social and physical space.
“As a multidisciplinary artist and art medicine researcher, I conceptualise and document these experiences on canvas so we can view our life experiences in visual form. Each sub- title constitutes a set of serial paintings telling the human identity story,” he said.
