Leo Asemota "The Avatāra Suite" Etchings

LEO ASEMOTA

THE AVATĀRA SUITE ETCHINGS

EoTLA

Front and back cover photograph: © & Courtesy Leo Asemota

LEO ASEMOTA

THE AVATĀRA SUITE ETCHINGS

EoTLA

Photography. Performance. Printmaking.

The Avatāra Suite by Leo Asemota is a set of six hard ground etchings on overpainted photographs. The etchings conclude Count Off for Eo ipso, a live art work by the artist that was staged in the Tate Modern Tanks in 2012.

The work was conceived as a prologue to Eo ipso, the last component in The Ens Project, an artwork Asemota has assiduously been working on since 2005. Combining, as its conceptual basis, the Project’s evolution with Tate’s conversion of architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s Bankside Power Station, the live art work enacted hï, the completed alternating lifecycles in the transfiguration of The Handmaiden, a creative being central to Eo ipso; hï is a concept in the Edo people of Benin’s cosmology of birth and reincarnation.

The Avatāra Suite etchings originate from Asemota’s photographic work Avatāra from Count Off for Eo ipso. In Sanskrit, avatāra describes the purposive ‘descent’ of a soul in bodily form on earth. In the English language, its root in Sanskrit, “avatar” is defined as an incarnation, materialization or embodiment of a person or idea.

Asemota’s characterisation of the famed architect, who he uses as an avatar for The Handmaiden are depicted within these prints as traces of key moments in the live art work when the ‘creative being’ engages with the materiality of a previous lifecycle: ófigbòn (palm oil), orhue (kaolin), ématon (iron), óze (bronze), éguòmwinbé (coal) and ivie (coral), which is rendered in the colours of the overpaint in each print in the set. These materials remain fundamental in the evolution of The Ens Project, activating multi-layers of significances and memories in time, condensing matter, actions and imagery.

The Ens Project is originally founded on three sources: Nigeria’s Edo people of Benin’s rich culture of art and ceremony and their time-honoured Igue rite to the Head; Victorian Britain’s history of invention, exploration and conquest including its sacking and looting of the former Kingdom of Benin in 1897; and the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, by the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940). The Ens Project to date comprise three phases: First Principles (2005 – 2008), The Handmaiden (2009 – 2012) and Eo ipso, which began in 2012.

hï The First Cycle Ófigbòn (palm oil)

hï The Second Cycle Orhue (kaolin)

hï The Third Cycle Ématon (iron)

hï The Fourth Cycle Óze (bronze)

hï The Fifth Cycle Éguòmwinbé (coal)

hï The Sixth Cycle Ivie (coral)

Leo Asemota | The Avatāra Suite 2015 A set of six hard ground copperplate etchings on to painted over colour photographs printed on Hahnemühle 500 gsm Photo Rag® paper. The prints are presented in a custom made portfolio with blind de-bossed title in silver foil.

Edition: 6 + 2 artist’s proofs and 2 printer’s proofs.

Sheet: 11.3 x 14.1 in x 6 (28.7 x 36 x 6 cm) Plate: 8 x 10.4 in x 6 (20.2 x 26.5 cm x 6) Portfolio: 11.8 x 14.3 x 0.39 in (30 x 36.5 x 1 cm) Printed at Arcane Press, London Thanks to Ian Steadman © 2015 Leo Asemota Exhibition Organized by Inês Valle TAFETA 7 October – 3 November 2015

Leo Asemota | The Avatāra Suite Etchings Published by Made at EoTLA www.eotla.com Artwork photography by ODH Photography www.odhphotography.com Designed by The General Production Office © 2022 Leo Asemota / EoTLA Printed by Salvio Calabrese | City Printing

Leo Asemota “Count Off for Eo ipso” 2011-12 Avatāra Ink and metallic scrim on archival inkjet print in artists’ frame.

7.8 x 10.1 in. (19.8 x 25.8 cm)