Be gentle with me | 2024, Enamelled Copper Plate, 7.5 x 5cm
Chronicles of Respite, 2024
Metal-work, Poetry, Print, Textile
Materials: Enamel powder, copper metal plates, paraffin wax, fabric dye, canvas, fabric, ink & polyester
Metal-work: Passages| 2024
Poetry: Slow down | Se jéjé | 2023, Choosing Self | 2023, Reckonings of Joy | 2024
Textile: Erekere | 2024
Chronicles of Respite positions rest and self-preservation as priorities in life, where joy, playfulness and self-encouragement are reflected as important within resting and being.
The project is explored across metal-work, print and textile in batik, new introductions to Olumide's expansive interdisciplinary practice incorporating an unapologetic variety of media.
Passages | 2024, Metal work, Enamelled Copper Plates, 58.6 x 35.6cm, (20 parts, each 7.5 x 5cm)
Waka Waka, Chaos, Home, Joko, Flow, Aláfíà | Peace, Self-reflection, Be gentle with me, Oneness, Life storms, Stuck, Trickles of money, Navigating, Farabale, Isinmi | Peace, Calm fire, Balance, Joy, Possibilities, Sleep.
Passages is a reactionary body of work assembled into a storyboard that outlines Tomilola’s portrayal of lived experiences stemming from burnout from recent projects and life happenings.
Olumide chronicles pockets of rest and peace taken amidst and after burnout through metal enamelling processes, which document her life passages in glass-fired abstract visuals and textures of imagery, text and motifs from personal iconography, Yoruba language, nostalgia and free forms; depicting subjects as exhaustion, stress, peace, self-care, anxiety, hope, stagnancy, escape, reflection, counselling and finally rest.
Joy | 2024, Enamelled Copper Plate, 7.5 x 5cm
Farabale | 2024, Enamelled Copper Plate, 7.5 x 5cm
Choosing Self (2023), Slow down | Se jéjé (2023), Reckonings of Joy (2024)
Poetry, Sublimation Prints on Polyester fabric
(96 x 66.5cm each)
“Writing is not done in stillness, it is done in movement and in the living”
Olumide considers her presented collection of poems honest and vulnerable, not embedded in shame but strength!
Choosing Self (2023) expresses an unapologetic priority of oneself alongside the intricacies and complexities life offers and that one navigates through.
“It is a love note to take all you are and have been through and unapologetically say ‘I adore you no matter what! Move! Keep going! Start somewhere! Finish! You’ve got this!’.”
Slow down | Se jéjé (2023) is a call to action to rest and be present away from a cycle of self deterioration, it offers an inner voice that holds one accountable and acts as an elder or counsellor, a sort of tough love letter to actually ‘take care’.
“If I had a big Sister, I hope she’d hold me down like this”
‘You need you and we need you, but the need that we need of you can only be needed if you are here to need you. If you are here to fight for you.’
excerpt from poem Slow down | Se jéjé (2023)
Reckonings of Joy (2024)
There is reassurance here, pouring from a full cup which gushes out testimonies of knowledge of joy from intimate understandings in personal contexts to the ‘God factor.’ Olumide mediates between humanistic experiences of her Joy between life passages to more physically intangible yet prolific expressions of her Joy found in her Christian faith which she benefits from “a constant assurance that all will be well.”
Olumide sees her faith as a bedrock of strength and nurturing, where the world, passages of life, her interactions with others and things in between do not hold fort for her internal joy which she recognises the source of being ‘God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.’
Mo fowo re sayan
Assurance
Photograph by David Rowan
Erekere | 2024, Textile Batik on Canvas Fabric, Parrafin wax, Fabric dye, Canvas fabric, 113.5 x 94cm (3 parts, each 39 x 41cm)
Erekere (Reckless Play), is a body of batik work originally in 4 pieces. It projects the ‘memory of making in creation’ and the triggering of this being joy which took Olumide back to her nursery school activity of hand painting; which she fondly associates as one of her earliest artistic expressions.
Here in batik she imprints her nostalgia in the textile medium which is new in her practice, and which she was encouraged to pursue from her uncompleted mixed media project Akọbi (2022- present).
Erekere holds space for childhood joy and merriment.
Joko | 2024, Enamelled Copper Plate, 7.5 x 5cm
Oneness | 2024, Enamelled Copper Plate, 7.5 x 5cm
Chronicles of Respite was created between Olumide's Birmingham Studio and STEAMhouse Birmingham Production Space facilities 'Metal-work and Print' workshops, initiated by her exploration of STEAMhouse's sponsored Studio Maker Program in February 2024.
Chronicles of Respite was commissioned by Multistory (a Black Country-based Community Arts Organisation) in curatorial partnership with The New Art Gallery Walsall for the group exhibition project Communion alongside Artists Jamal Lloyd Davis and Leah Hickey.
Communion was initiated by Multistory's Assembly (annual exhibition program) and artist development programme Blast Creative Network (BCN), which supports emerging artists based in the Black Country region of England.
Communion is currently being displayed at The New Art Gallery Walsall between August 8th and November 17th 2024, with an Artist talk on November 9th 2024.
Learn more
Choosing Self (2023): https://www.tomilolaolumideart.com/choosing-self-2023
Slow down | Se jéjé (2023): https://www.tomilolaolumideart.com/slow-down-2023
Reckonings of Joy (2024): https://www.tomilolaolumideart.com/reckonings-of-joy-2024
Multistory: https://multistory.org.uk/programme/bcn-assembly/
The New Gallery Walsall: https://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/exhibition/communion
Exhibition Guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AJbDpljxCNJWBxybV3ouPeZz1K8byFKw/view
Special thanks to Multistory, The New Art Gallery Walsall, STEAMhouse, Jessica Piette, Rene Francis-McBrearty, Deborah Robinson, Gregg Dunn and Kevin Storrar for their support through this project.
All Images of Tomilola Olumides' artwork installed on The New Art Gallery of Walsall's Community galleries walls for the Communion exhibition were taken by Photographer David Rowan.
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