Exhibition at aceartinc, To Create Context
aceartinc. is pleased to present To Create Context, an upcoming solo exhibition by Deinma David Iyagba.
On Saturday, January 13 2024 from 6-9PM, we welcome you to join our opening celebration.
Opening Reception: Saturday January 13, 6PM – 9PM
Artist Talk: February 2, 2024
Exhibition run: January 13 – February 23, 2024
Gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12-5PM
Deinma David Iyagba is an artist originally from Southern Nigeria, currently based in Winnipeg, Canada. His artistic practice is rooted in a multidisciplinary approach that is gradually evolving into transdisciplinary exploration. Fascinated by the fluid and harmonious collaboration of various artistic mediums, he delves into the realm of multi-dimensionality, using it as a gateway to explore a diverse array of themes.
“I currently have a multidisciplinary practice and I use that to take on themes and ideas I am sensitive to,” he explains. Actively engaging with concepts surrounding language, storytelling, history, time, space, identity, performance, allegory, migration, boundaries, and religion, among others, Iyagba expresses his fascination with the experiences generated through his works. These manifestations in space and place, he believes, hold the potential to spark meaningful conversations.
To Create Context is a collage-based exploration rooted in the artist’s contemplation of his own heritage. It delves into the intricate interplay of performance, legacy, history, consumerism, and spectatorship, unravelling narratives woven through the memories that have significantly shaped his cultural experience.
Prompted by the displacement of the aura and detachment of meaning caused by the impact of fast fashion on African prints, the artist explores inauthenticity through works that play with parody and re-reproduction. Intertwined within his own diaspora, this complexity introduces doubt on the feasibility of reconciling his works within contextual existence and infusing them with aura.
Reflecting on his work, the artist articulates how “it has transformed into a journey of engaging not just the displacement of the aura but with my own sense of displacement. It also led me to the exploration of the boundaries and limitations of my quest, forcing a body of work that teeters on the edge of meaning and meaninglessness.”
ARTIST IN CONVERSATION
To create context
My interactions with you have all been situated in performance.
I was adorned in your colourful patterns,
And each pattern contained stories I was too young to understand.
Our first interaction was for an occasion of some sort,
I think it was probably a church service or a party.
Since then, I have been adorned by you many times,
but I am still yet to uncover your intricacies.
It is interesting our relationship,
I see you regularly embellishing other people with your beauty and making statements,
but I wonder if they know or care about the stories you hold.
Speaking about statements, I saw you also adorning a bicycle the other day.
It was a new and interesting situation to see you exist.
It was an advertisement with the words “Get your own authentic African print bicycle”.
AUTHENTIC AFRICAN PRINT
A true statement I presumed.
You are an embodiment of stories, but none written with words.
Well, I used to think that until I looked at your hems.
Written there, “Made in China” and again “Made in Holland”.
This was a shocker to me, you of all things, with a name like that, “African print”.
I wouldn’t have imagined the first words you would say to me were words like that.
It is almost unthinkable with the space you have occupied in my understanding of culture.
So, what roles do you play now in our ceremonial displays?
What roles do you play now in our traditional weddings?
our funeral processions?
Our parties, religious ceremonies, and our way of expression?
What even happens to the aura in these situations?
Do these happenings still retain their weight or ritualistic significance, and what about authenticity?
I mean I understand that a few of the patterns are fully African, but the ones I wore………
At this point, my memories with you are all confusing,
I feel like they are all a kind of paradoxical experience.
A PARODY.….
About aceartinc.: We are an artist-run centre dedicated to the support, exhibition, and dissemination of contemporary art. aceartinc. Presents five major exhibitions a year by contemporary visual artists. www.aceart.org
We are on Treaty 1 Territory. On the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. We offer our respect and gratitude to the caretakers of this land.
