Wa wọ, 2023 

Residency Project for Spot VR Residency at Stryx Gallery, Birmingham

Virtual reality and augmented reality artwork and models, mixed media physical sculptures and wall installations. 

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During my Spot VR Residency at Stryx Gallery, I have been pursuing my self-directed project Wa wọ a playful experimentation of VR technology and its incorporation into my existing practice. I’ve created freeform drawings with the VR software ‘Open Brush and Gravity Sketch’ and I’ve also adapted physical sculptures from my past project (In Own Image series, 2018) in augmented reality through 3D module scanning towards the creation of mixed media illustrations, audiovisual performances and installation rooms through VR relating to ‘memory, identity, aestheticism and materialism.’

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I have been experimenting with mark-making through free-form drawings in dark voids of space with various tools and stencils, virtually transforming these drawings into moving images, sculptures and installation rooms, as well as their spatial integrity and alienness in a way. The deviation from the mundane in these voids of space excites me.

 

I see parallels between the motions, structures created from my body and muscle memories represented in some of my VR drawings (Purple infinity|VR drawing, 2023), physical body performances like (Moving to Words | Performance, 2023 & Undecided project | Performance, 2019) and my sculptural practice of ‘fabric drawing’ like (Reminisce | Installation, 2019) which explores material interplay.

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More recently I have created some free-form drawings and sculptures from plaster and found objects which mimic the intangible structures and visual textures of some of my VR drawings. This process was inspired by prior experimentations of free-form plaster drawings and sculptures from yesteryears inclusive of found objects through ‘fabric drawing’ and the multisensory memories of making some of my VR drawings during my residency.

 

I was really keen on imprinting the textures of my virtual structures into materials through muscle memories from drawings in the virtual realm transferred into drawing/moulding/ assemblage techniques in the physical realm with plaster, textile fabric and found objects (metal wire, pvc, wood) towards creating sculptures and installations.

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KanKan series

Kan Kan is an indigenous bathing sponge, I have memories of it from my childhood with my grandmother and after just receiving some from my mother a few weeks ago I intuitively created a digital drawing in VR that was inspired by the fibres of the sponge. In making this drawing there was a lot of dizziness, due to mimicry in following the sphere of strands, whines, twirls and underbelly between grooves and knots. I found myself dancing in an effort to mimic the structures of this sponge while remembering the harshness of its texture and its effectiveness in ridding your body of any muck… ah memories from Ibadan.

 

KanKan, 2023, VR Digital drawing

KanKan, 2023, VR Digital drawing Video

KanKan nest, 2023, Sculpture (Kankan sponge fibres, plaster)

KanKan, 2023, Sculpture (Metal wire)

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Cho cho cho (Tongues) | 2023, Sculpture (Plaster)

A physical manifestation of abstract human tongues from the VR digital drawing ‘Untitled work, 2023, VR Digital drawing’.

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Untitled series (Plaster drawings on canvas board) | 2023 (Plaster, cowry shell) (4)

Etchings of continuous free-form lines into plaster boards on canvas.

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Untitled series (Fabric drawings on walls) | 2023, Installation (Fabics, plaster, mirrors) (2)

A physical manifestation of iridescent conal structures from the drawings ‘Untitled and Purple Infinity, 2023.

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Purple infinity, 2023, VR Digital drawing (2) & Untitled work, 2023, VR Digital drawing (2)

Free-form drawings in the virtual realm using the software application Open brush.

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Waka | In Own Image series, 3D scan video, 2018

Exploring 3D scans of a plaster hand sculpture ‘Waka’ which means ‘God punish you’ in Nigerian pidgin language

 

Psychedelic crystal fusion, Discord Obscured, Variation calabash & Wonderland Yellow

Photo manipulations from In Own Image Alt series, 2018

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Special thanks to the Stryx Gallery team Karolina Korupczynska, Magdalena Jasiak, Jemima Graham, Edward Wakefield, Pawel Frackowiak  and  Marcin Sz for their support during my Spot VR Residency.

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