Uneven, roughened wood strips with bitten edges like leftovers from an ants food feast, coming together in one piece. Tan brown, dark brown, wood earth, gold tones, orange hues, and several shades of brown and red highlight the composition. There are no identifiable images across the wood panel, but very intricately driven into each strip of wood are patterns and motifs flowing from one strip into the other to make the complete panel.
Chukwuma is a very dynamic creator and each piece he creates is a tapestry of visions, images, colours, lines and textures. Seeing this piece a viewer quickly recalls the works of globally celebrated artist El-Anatsui, though the techniques are different, the process and outcome look similar. Chukwuma’s technique is engraving, leaving out the burning of wood for elaborate painting. This piece is characteristic of the artist’s restless mind seeking for expression in various forms of art, most times without a singular identifiable root form. Chukwuma prefers a combination of art forms to express himself and this piece is one reflective of this. The viewer’s eyes travel around the colorful landscape as if to sight something familiar – an icon, motif, a word with which they can start to make meaning of the work.
The title Celestial Soulscape is intriguing, how does the artist have knowledge of the transactions in the celestial realm so much so as to reproduce it in a work of art, is this merely his own suggestion as to the type of transaction that the human soul engages in celestial transitions? One thing that is certain with this piece is that the artist has used lines so elaborately to convey the notion of his idea of a celestial soulscape – a place where series of activities take place in several linear transitions leading into one beautiful piece in the end irrespective of the many smaller units of chaos-like transitions that started the process.
By Guest Author
Mathew Oyedele (Nigerian)