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Tomilola Olumide

Ìnù mí dùn, 2025 

Textile, Installation, Ceramic, Sculpture, Poetry

Materials (agbalumo skin, kan kan sponge, terracotta clay, vitreous enamel powder, copper metal, batik textile wax resist print on canvas fabric)

 

Ìnù mí dùn (I am Happy | My insides are sweet | My inner self is glad) is an exploration of memory, pleasure and ethno-botanical research through play and material tactility, activated by the sensuality of West African fruit Agbalumo (African Star Apple, Udara, Agwaluma, Alasa) and presented across natural fibres, textile, ceramics, metal and poetry.

 

Thus far, Ìnù mí dùn has manifested as an archival assemblage of dehydrated agbalumo fruit skin fibres, terracotta clay sculptures, wax-resist batik on cotton textile, kan kan sponge fibres, kiln-cast vitreous enamel glass tiles, silversmithed copper enamelled sculpture and narrated audio poetry accompanied by the documentation of the project's research production process from its inception in 2021.

 

As a project Ìnù mí dùn was curated to allow experiential learning through touch and oral storytelling, depicted through the craftsmanship and sensuality of objects that are visceral illustrations of the ‘familiar;’ demonstrated across ongoing research in memory, ancestral futures and materials in ethnobotanical contexts. 

 

View gallery above to learn more

Research Journal

I expanded my curiosities across a variety of process-led making practices, exploring tactile memory activation and material fusion. Ìnù mí dùn expanded beyond a culmination of ethnographic & ethnobotanical curiosities and explorations of food, memory and storytelling, but more so the creation of finite objects that paid homage to these conversations through craftsmanship. ​

View gallery above to learn more​​

All Images and media in this portfolio pertaining Artwork, Research and content were taken and created by Artist Tomilola Olumide. 
©All rights reserved by Tomilola Olumide

 

​Special thanks to Dantong Yu and the Royal College of Arts Jewellery and Metal department Technical staff for their support through this project.

Learn more: https://www.tomilolaolumideart.com/ìnùmídùn-2025

 

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