THE PUBLIC SPACE:

INVOLVING THE PEOPLE IN THE ART MAKING PROCESS – A NEO-CONTEMPORARY TREND

Uche Nnadozie

Artist, art essayist, curator with the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria

Introduction

Initially, it was believed that art making was exclusively the prerogative of the artist, alone in his studio, making all the visual statements on behalf of himself and the society. But at a point in history, the society that has all this time been the artist’s patron began to influence him and succeeds in including its’ views for the artist’s work to materialise.

Now, the artist involves his audience/public as they join her/him in art production, as Amarachi Okafor has done with Ask Yourself – art that she produced with the public in public squares, for the enlightenment, entertainment and pleasure of the same public. Over 351 ‘artists’ participated to make this participatory and interactive art, where Amarachi was the lead artist. But what about? About issues “aimed at collective societal positive transformation,” according to

Okafor. And through what mode of making? Through an unusual, artistically strange and visually/aesthetically abnormal pattern of making, yet meaningful, relevant and also fitting into postmodernism. The context and even the content of her message are multi-dimensional and will be analysed in detail in the body of this discourse.

This essay attempts to look at Okafor’s artistic and creative innovation through a historical interrogation of such creative occurrences in the annals of art history. It weighs the impact of her creative methodology on her society – Nigeria. Amarachi Okafor’s creative methodology involves taking art making-processes to public spaces where she, the artist, and her audience partake in the production with one message in mind – “sensitising ourselves as individuals and as a soci- ety in need to move forward positively in all facets of life”. Here, Okafor’s methodology and her message will also be x-rayed in context, in order to see if there is a parking space for such an artistic innovation [locomotive] within the parking lounge of Nigeria’s contemporary art, probably, this is a new artistic order – a neo-contemporary Nigerian art.

Art and the Public Space in Perspective, Context and Content

From the beginning of time, art has been part of human existence and endeavors. It is a motivating factor found in the fabric of every successful civilisation. Specifically, art and artists have always been considered imperative in any given society/civilisation right from the people of the Upper Paleolithic era (the Old Stone Age) to the 21st century of our common era – (the postmodern age on the art calendar).

Art rendered support and strength initially to religion and later to socio-political issues in particular and society in general. It can better be referred to as ‘art for the people by the people’. At a time in history, art became a means of distinguishing between civilisations, ranging from the Neolithic era with the mysterious but dynamic monuments such as the Stonehenge, to the Egyptian pyramids and tombs which are the offshoots of numerous public artworks along the Nile, palaces and cities. Some of these were known to have been commissioned by the Pharaohs whose kingships were absolute and ‘divine’ as well as key, in Egyptian civilisation - a civilisation that largely determined the characteristic of Egyptian art.1 The Pharaohs commissioned these tombs and pyramids as public art, a reflection of their political achievements during their reign. These were the kinds of attainments that they were prepared to go with, into the next life.

The production of these works of art can be perceived as participatory since the making of the art had involved thousands of slaves (some historical accounts refute this, suggesting that these ‘artists’ were paid and therefore did not work as slaves whilst making the art).

The making of the monuments was indeed participatory and reflected the glory, divinity and longevity of the patrons – the Pharaohs. The making, and the monuments them- selves, have socio-political implications since the tombs and pyramids revealed the political strength, affluence and wealth of the Pharaohs. It is pertinent to note that the Pharaohs were not alone in the preparation for an ‘afterlife’ for it was the essence of Egyptian cosmology, so the entire Egyptian society was involved. It was a kind of civic obligation for every Egyptian to have his own tomb. See Fig. 1 & 2.

uche nnadozie

About 1,500 years later the Greco-Roman civilisation emerged first with the Hellenistic period. The art making of the Hellenistic time was also public oriented, thus resulting in an international culture uniting the Hellenistic world.

Although the Greek art had little political artistic expression, it was court oriented because the Hellenistic princes were involved in collecting art, acquiring skills as critics and connoisseurs and then disseminating this Greek art making methodology to the locals whom they were ruling.2

On the other hand, Roman art takes its features mostly based on the imperial role that the Roman State (empire) played.

What are some of its features and what impact did Roman art have on its public? Art making in the Roman society had socio-political/cul- tural tendencies. They were very public oriented. Most public art was meant for public awareness, as a source of information and were utilised to unify the people. For instance, the “Julio-Claudian emperors, Augustus’ successors in the first century AD continued their policy of glorifying by art [using] a vast variety of public works.”3 The ‘Ara Pacis Augustae’ [altar of the Augustan peace] monument was public art with socio-religious and political connotations that narrated the pacification of the entire empire in the Augustan years following the establishment of the new government in 27 BC.

Another way in which public art was made people oriented and involving of the public [probably] through its message even if not necessarily through its mode of production was by the memorialisation of actual events through monumental forms as expressed in numerous imperial triumphal arches in ancient Rome. The triumphal arch is one of the most popular type of commemorative monuments. It is “an ornamental version of a city gate moved to the center of the city to permit the entry of triumphal processions into the forum.”4 ‘The Arch of Titus’ celebrated his victory and by extension the Roman supremacy in the Jewish war of 66 – 70 AD.

The Column of Trajan is another kind of commemorative public art. The Column at 100 Roman feet high spoke for Trajan, on the one hand as a Leader, and, on the other hand, for the people of Rome as followers, or as a society that produced the Leader. The Column chronicled Trajan’s successful campaigns and the further expansion of the Roman civilisation. Helen Gardner vividly referred to the Column as

…a sculptural narrative [journalistic nature] of military architecture, fortifications, bridges, and so on, to show the Roman technical superiority over the barbarian foe. The emperor’s figure is seen many times throughout the narrative, appearing as a kind of major motif. It reveals what Rome thought to be her mission – bringing civilisation to the benighted. Towns are built, crops harvested, rituals performed, and imperial speeches given. The reliefs on the Column are not only an exaltation of Trajan, but a hymn to Ramanitas.5

Africa, and Nigeria particularly are no exceptions. In the ancient societies in Nigeria, the artist was the rallying point for all socio-religious issues. He gave support and energy to religious, and in turn political institutions.

Art making at that time was participatory because where the common people needed the artist to lead in producing the Mbari houses, the ancestral groves, the masks (for community policing) and the Ikenga, the rulers needed him to lead in decorating the palaces and to document kings and nobles.6 Thus the ancient artist involved the people especially as extra hands, in his art making processes. An example is with the building of an Mbari house.

What about the Ife and Benin heads, are the artists not also involved in assisting the monarchs to visually document them? There is some semblance in the art making culture of the Mediterranean world and that of Nigeria, where the former is well versed with creating public art and open space monuments, the latter made art pieces for segregated members of society (religious cults and kings’ courts). Another concept of public art and its far-reaching effects on its publics is body art – the ichi facial scarifications of the Igbos which initially included the cheeks but later became confined to the forehead. According to Cornelius Adepegba, the wearers of the ichi markings were quite revered and respected by the Igbos. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, European slave buyers avoided these mark wearers due to their political potency, with the fear that they could lead other slaves to cause mutiny or to jump overboard in the course of movements across the oceans.7

Cultural production in contemporary Nigeria is not so different from what it was during the ancient times. In the beginning, in Nigeria, it started with Aina Onabolu’s naturalistic art which was later severely criticised, for it was regarded as a slavish copying of the European orthodox artistic methodology. Yet others argued, that Onabolu and his ‘Euro-traditional’ realism is essentially nationalistic and politically relevant. Nkiru Nzegwu particularly opined that Onabolu and his group proved “a political point, that colonised African artists can equally paint like their European counterparts,” in other words, using “European naturalistic style to fight the battle of racial differences.”8

The Nigerian artist’s ideological approach to visual culture took a swift and different dimension with the introduction of artistic manifestoes such as Negritude in the 1940s with emphasis on Ben Enwonwu’s paintings; Natural Synthesis championed by the

Zaria Art Society in the 1950s, and the radical approach to visual political discourses precipitated by the civil war. None of the products of this era, however, is public art. They were constituted in the studio and taken straight to the galleries and the museums. They were the characteristics of modern Nigeria’s aesthetic which lasted for over 50 years.

At the turn of the millennium, Nigeria’s contemporary art began to experience radical changes in techniques, media and processes, art making generally became within the framework of conceptual art, concept and meaning began to matter a lot, and new forms/media (electronic, performance and installation art) emerged. One factor that aided the emergence of the new trend is of course globalisation.9 Kunle Filani gave further insight:

The global space opened up for creative interaction among artists and art scholars. This warranted a cross-fertilisation of ideas among artists from all over the world. More avant-garde experiments continued and many Nigerian artists both at home and abroad responded to globalisation in various ways that still emphasised the issue of African identity. The underlying political and economic collapse of the 1970s to 1990s became the thematic structure upon which many conceptual artists constructed their forms.10

Yet scholars and artists like Krydz Ikwuemesi, Thierry William Kondedji, Lucie Tonya and Chijioke Onuora do not agree with Filani on his opinion about some of these art forms. Onuora queried the creative relevance of such art forms with emphasis on installation.11 Ikwuemesi particularly berated the idea of this form of art, calling installation art a western idea when in the real sense it is not new anywhere, and not new in Africa. Nonetheless, it is only recently that Installation Art is being fully appropriated (in Nigeria) as an art form. He further stressed that “to claim a new birth for it in Africa or elsewhere is like claiming new birth for a re-christened old child.”12

Thierry Kondediji and Lucie Tonya (cited by Ikwuemesi) insist that installation art is African; it is a creative rebirth which has revealed that creativity in contemporary Africa can relate to the past. They assert that whatever these art forms are now reinvented and called, they are “indeed close to the religious altars and are cultural dispositions, set… by the priests.”13 But Ikwuemesi disagrees saying that there are other cultures with sacred groves which could have inspired the contemporary Installation Art.

Whatever the case maybe, we have a new art trend in Nigeria, one whose characteristics involve asserting liberty and the rights of creativity; taking art directly to the public and, as a result, can eliminate the need for galleries or museum spaces; propagates new art forms and explores new visual possibilities with complex visual narratives.

This is perhaps neo-contemporary Nigerian art and we must come to terms with its prevailing influence on a younger generation of Nigerian artists both at home and abroad. Like with any other artistic era/epoch, what is the origin of Neo-Contemporary Nigerian Art?

Postmodernism, Neo-Contemporary Nigerian Art and Its Components

Helen Gardner, the art historian, may not have foreseen the emergence of postmodernism, let alone globalisation, but in the conclusion of her very incisive and detailed art chronology, she envisages an emerging international art world which is as a result of the west losing her tradition and the non-western parts of the world either losing or modifying theirs.14

In their analysis of what they termed the ‘paradox of postmodernism’, H.W. and Anthony Janson termed postmodernism a mechanism fashioned to reject modernism. This was the barometer used to measure (define) the late 20th century culture. Even as a usurper of an established tradition, postmodernism neither “resolutely refuses to define a new meaning” nor imposes an alternative order in its’ (modernism) place.15 It is a phenomenon that sprang from a post-industrial society which has since moved into an information age. Although a global phenomenon, different nations can have different positions and terminologies for the artistic trends produced during this period. However, all of these may still be grouped under the rubric of postmodernism. (See Fig. 9, an example of Modern Art by Pablo Picasso). involving the people in the art making process

In Nigeria, for instance, modern art (contemporary, for Nigeria) showed up in the early 20th century and if we agree with the theory that contemporary art in any given period lasts for only a hundred years,16 it means then that the contemporary Nigerian art (Modern Art in global circles) should completely shift by 2020.

Postmodernist trends have been noticed since 2000 in our art parlance but without much recognition or acceptance at the beginning. This was probably why in 2009 OkekeAgulu remarked that “contemporary art in Nigeria seemed more in tune with late 19th century art trends than it did with cutting edge 21st century forms.”17

At the beginning, some ‘art masters’ in Nigeria were uncomfortable with the arrival of these new trends even though they were itching for new creative possibilities. This probably inspired Jacob Jari’s 1998 article - Natural Synthesis and the Dialogue with Mona Lisa - where he was anxious about a post- Natural Synthesis era in Nigerian Contemporary art.18 Thus like Gardner, Jari probably did not know how this change would come, but he did foresee beyond Natural Synthesis.

In 2006, Kunle Filani - who as I mentioned earlier had encouraged Nigerians to embrace this new trendwas quite critical about the same trend in a paper titled Modernity in Contemporary Nigerian Art and the Illusion of the Ripening Plantain. Filani berated the artistic tendencies, asking artists involved in performance and installation to be more creative. He regarded these inclinations as extreme and suggested that the artists should be called to order. Not to spare the curators of these trends, he accused them of seeking cheap glory by misleading the artists in the name of installation19 but today the story has changed! (See Figs. 9 – 12 Installations by renowned Nigerian Printmaker, Bruce Onobrakpeya).

Nigeria lags 20 years behind the new art epoch. This is because we refer to ‘art since 1980’ as postmodern art. Nevertheless, a gradual progression is being accommodated. Postmodernists are far more issue-oriented than the previous art era, and their work spreads across (accommodating) a wider spectrum of concerns than ever before. According to the Janson brothers, “the principal manifestation of post modernism is ‘Appropriation’.”20 It looks back self-consciously to earlier art by imitating previous styles and by taking over specific motifs or even entire images. In this art-making period, artists borrow more systematically from tradition than was the norm.

In postmodernism there can be the freedom to adopt existing imageries but there is also the possibility to alter the meaning of these imageries radically by bringing them to new contexts. There is then more emphasis placed on content and process over aesthetics. Another unique feature of postmodernism is the option to merge art forms - there can be no distinction between painting, sculpture or photography. Having said all these, how have we localised postmodernism?

Neo-Contemporary Nigerian art, citing Harrie Bazunu and Tobenna Okwuosa, is “art making strategies that push beyond the conventional boundaries, … rebranding Nigeria and contemporary Nigerian art that is considered insipid by some national and international art critics.” 21 It is an art trend and era for the 21st century, that appears more proactive than reactive. Moyo Okediji calls it a “new modern” - an exposition that explores new media, using new methods to pursue new meaning. Tonie Okpe reasons alongside by saying that Nigeria’s art education culture deters the massive embracing of these trends which are contemporary “within a global context… with an abundance of possibilities in form, theme, subject matter…material and process [with]… visually non-traditional material occupy[ing] centre stage within this art form.”22

What are some of these materials? They include found objects –discarded materials, and various forms of waste or disused objects, electronic appliances, film/ video making and theatrical performance. The artists of neo-contemporary Nigerian art have an “understanding … [about the] critical appropriation of disused objects in the above-mentioned techniques.”23 Some are master recycling/repurposing artists of international repute such as El Anatsui, Junkman, Sokari Douglas Camp, Moyo Okediji, Ayo Adewumi, Yinka Shonibare, Bruce Onabrakpeya, Jelili Atiku, Amarachi Okafor, Bright Eke and Nnenna Okore just to mention a few. involving the people in the art making process inter-related, this is why one cannot agree less with Ikwuemesi when he says that installation art has an ancient global creative and artistic ancestry; then what about Public art?

They deploy their newfound modes of expression, sensitivity, intellect and creativity to transform ubiquitous materials into elements of profound artistic statements through Film, Video art, Computer Animation, Performance, Installation and Public Art or art in the public spaces.

The neo-contemporary, postmodern artist has continued from their modernist counterparts to use their ‘weird’ media in documenting the socio-political recklessness of our political class and to re-contextualise Public Art. It is imperative to state here and now that in terms of creative innovation, invention or methodology, there is nothing new in art, but in terms of appropriation, probably, there might be something. Throughout art history, we find that artistic trends are often

Since neo-modernism knows no bounds even in Nigeria, Amarachi in creating an artistic phenomenon called Ask Yourself, has explored the essence of Public Art. Her art projects a semblance with the art of times past, that had aimed to serve the public, though in a different way. Amarachi’s public art is a great example of a Nigerian neo-contemporary postmodernist art form that can have impact on audiences and lives beyond the confines of a gallery or museum. This is not the form of public art commissioned by the State to adorn public buildings and squares. No! If we pay any attention to Twylene Mayer, then we would say that it is not that type of public art which adds aesthetic veneer to buildings and government facilities such as those of eras past, but public art that is “intended to preserve civic norms … and potentially contribute to public dialogue in a myriad of ways.”24

Public art in this context, influenced by the prevailing circumstances of the 21st century in Nigeria and the globe at large, is public art of experimentation, questioning and dissent, one that challenges the public realm as other forms of art do not “and offers the promise of imaginative, if not always literal liberation.”25

What about the public space as material?

Amarachi employed this physical or virtual methodology with the intent to create “a zone open to all and belonging to none, a place of social, intellectual, and political exchange characterised by freedom of movement and expression.”26

A Reading of Amarachi’s

A sk Y ourself within the context and content of Neo-contemporary Art.

Amarachi Okafor is an innovative artist who studied, apprenticed and has worked with the renowned sculptor El Anatsui. At the University of Nigeria, she obtained a B.A Hons in Painting, an MFA in Sculpture and later an MA, Curatorial Practice from Falmouth University in the UK.

A former Curator with National Gallery of Art, Nigeria, Amarachi by virtue of her artistic processing and production is vividly a neo-contemporary artist based in Nigeria. She has spent years in her practice projecting her new art trend with tremendous results –winning awards and participating in many artist residencies. She is obsessed with unconventional artistic methodology that is laden with meaning, and innovation. One of Amarachi’s methods isworking collaboratively and creating opportunities to give other people actual (artistic) experiences. Although she trained in an environment where the Uli ideology and style reigned, Amarachi did not pick up that esthetic. She ushered in reactive modernist styles and advanced then to rather proactive neo-modernist ones, transcending from the trappings of Nigeria’s post-independent culture and the artistic expressions associated with it [Uli, for instance]27 to applying a neo-modernist/contemporary artistic force. Ask Yourself is public art created by adopting the public space as material– “which is a place of social, intellectual and political exchange characterised by freedom of movement and expression.” It would appear that involving the people in the art making process the sense that it poses as a catalyst for producing (positive) change in people, aiding us to look inwards to ourselves first and begin to think of growing or generating ideas and methods for constructive change towards achieving an admirable society.

Amarachi went back in time to the Pharaonic and the Greco-Roman era to interrogate the essence of ‘art in the public space’, adopting her inspiration from their experiences (past) and bringing it to the present (today).

Ask Yourself is a monumental installation, produced with the characteristics of Painting, and Sculpture Installation. It imbibes Performativity and uses Text as a visual language.28

Ask Yourself is multi-dimensional, involving many neo-contemporary art techniques including Film that recorded the ephemeral aspects (participation and interaction) of the piece which included processes such as painting, experiential conversations, reading, writing and drawing activities. Essentially, it is an artwork produced alongside the public, for the same public – in the public space.

One can classify Amarachi’s Ask Yourself as Interactive Installation, a sub-category of Installation Art which “can involve the audience acting on the work of art or the piece responding to the audience’s or user’s activities.” This installation technique is used by artists who are interested in using “audience participation to co-author the meaning of the installation”29 – collaboratively.

Conclusion

One cannot but agree with Amarachi –that Ask Yourself is sensitisation, sensitisation in

Ask Yourself as an art piece was produced with many collaborators. This brings us to the issue of a parking space for such artistic innovation in the parking lounge of Nigeria’s visual art. Is there a space for Amarachi’s artistic broth? Can we box it into creative specifics despite its complex dimensions? Can it be said to be relevant to our experience as a people? The answer is yes! Yes!! And yes!!! Her art is classifiable. It is post-modernist. It is conceptual. It is installation. It is Film. It is Painting. It is Public art – a participatory kind produced in the studio as well as in the public space. Finally, it is a new modernist/contemporary Nigeria art –the art of the future, an art meant for the public by the public.30

At the beginning of this discourse we tried to revisit some historical monuments of wonderful art civilisations in the Mediterranean and there is no doubt that Ask Yourself does compare indeed, the difference being Time and Place! Hence, it becomes necessary to conclude this discourse with Twylene Mayer’s suggestions on the role of Public art such as Ask Yourself. Mayer postulated that: Public art can help us see past the illusion.

It may even offer solutions and improve lives, but ultimately, accountability lies beyond its scope. Public art is not going to relieve urban blight, eliminate violence, redistribute wealth, or curb the police state by itself, but it can insert doubt.... It can inspire us all- viewers, direct participants, …to re-evaluate what we mean by quality of life, to reassess what we think we know, and to reconsider how we choose to live with ourselves and each other. In the world of art, critique, pleasure and insight can come together to re-imagine and forge new modes of public life.31

NOTES/REFERENCES

1. H.W. Janson and A.F. Janson, History of Art for Young People, 5th Edition (New York: Harry M. Abrams Inc, 1997), 38-41.

2. Helen Gardner, Art through the Ages, 7th Edition (New York: Jovanorich, 1980), 144

3. ibid p.194

4. ibid p.196

5. ibid p.196

6. There were no public monuments in this part because of lack of materials and the enabling environment but at the peak of the Benin empire, there came court art pieces such as the ‘Oba heads’ rendered in bronze; and the Ife art which at the beginning were terracotta heads.

7. Cornelius Adepegba, Nigerian Art: Its Traditions and Modern Tendencies (Ibadan: JODAD Publishers, 1995), 15. See Chike Aniakor, Reflective Essays on Art and Art History (Pan-African Circle of Artists Press, 2005), 9

8. Kunle Filani, NIVATOUR: Tenor of creativity in contemporary Nigerian Art in NIVATOUR 2, KoreaNigeria: A Friendship over decades (Abuja: National Gallery of Art, The Korean Art Museum and Total Museum of Contemporary Art, 2013), 7

Also see Nkiru Nzegwu, Introduction: Contemporary Nigerian Art: Euphorizing the Art Historical Voice in Contemporary textures: Multidimensionality in Nigerian Art cited by Kunle Filani in NIVATOUR 2: Tenor of creativity in contemporary Nigerian Art.

9. “Globalization is the gradual coalescence or sudden collision of identities, resources, political power and economic interests, an intercultural ferment, creating networks of trade and commerce, expanding or shrinking spheres of influence. It can also be defined as a process of infiltration and counter-infiltration, surrender, conquest, shifting paradigms, and widening spheres of cross-communal interaction. In one sense, it broadens participation by connecting different world –yet palpable fears remain that it assists the strong to easily overrun and (re) colonize the weak… Globalization, by contrast is a more recent phenomenon, through the foundation for its final emergence had been laid long ago. With every new book written, every ship that set sail, the invention of the airplane, the liberalization of learning, the slave trade, transnational wars and conflicts, natural disasters and finally, the arrival of the Internet, -the stage had been set, a situation had been created, a chain of networks that can no longer be broken, a monster that is hard to tame, a delineation of new geographies. Globalization is born.”

Source: Uchechukwu Nwosu, Uche Okeke, Culture, Synthesis and Globalization, in Nku Di Na Mba: Uche Okeke and Modern Nigerian Art, ed. Paul Dike and Pat Oyeloa (Abuja: NGA, 2003), 281

10. See note 8

11. Onuorah made this statement as an introduction in a misplaced exhibition catalogue.

12. Krydz Ikwuemesi, Installation, African Art and the Politics of Cultures in Trends: Six Artists Single Platform (Abuja: NGA, 2013), 18

13. ibid

14. Gardner, Art through the Ages, 889.

15. See note 1

16. Filani, NIVATOUR: Tenor of creativity in Contemporary Nigerian Art, 3

17. Bisi Silva, The New Face of Painting (http://katrinschulze. blogspot.com.br/2009/09/bisi-silva-new-face-ofcontemporary.html). Cited by Harrie Bazunu and Tobenna Okwuosa, in Ridding Nigeria of Filth: A Reading of Moyo Okediji, Bright Eke and Harrie Bazunu’s Application of Discarded Materials: ajofaa: Awka Journal of Fine and Applied Arts, no.1 (2013): 49.

18. Jacob Jari, Natural Synthesis and the Dialogue with Mona Lisa, in The Zaria Art Society: A New Consciousness, ed. Paul Dike and Pat Oyelola (Abuja: NGA,1998), 45-49.

19. Kunle Filani, Modernity in contemporary Nigerian Art and the Illusion of the Ripening Plantain, A Paper presented at the 2nd National Symposium on Nigerian Art, organized by National Gallery of Art in Conjunction with the Dept of Fine and Applied Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, 26th- 29th September, 2006.

20. Appropriation “is the deliberate inclusion of ‘borrowed’ images or forms by other artists in a new work of art, some of it electronic in contrast to copying or imitation. It raises all manner of questions concerning intellectual property rights and originality, an area of heated debate since the mid 1980s.”

Source: H.W. Janson and A.F. Janson, History of Art for Young People, 598

21. Harrie Bazunu and Tobenna Okwuosa, Ridding Nigeria of Filth: A Reading of Moyo Okediji, Bright Ugochukwu Eke and Harrie Bazunu’s Application of Discarded materials, ajofaa: awka journal of fine and applied arts, no. 1 (2013), 49.

22. Tonie Okpe, Conceptual Art: A Reception Musing, A Paper presented at an induction course organized by National Gallery of Art, for her new staff in conjunction with Rock Edge Consulting Ltd in Abuja, 2nd August, 2011.

23. See note 21.

24. Twylene Mayer, ‘Foreword’ in Artists Reclaim the Common: New works/New Territories/New Publics, ed. Glenn Harper (Washington: ISC Press, 2013), 7.

25. ibid

26. ibid

27. Bazunu and Okwuosa Ridding Nigeria of Filth: A Reading of Moyo Okediji, Bright Eke and Harrie Bazunu’s Application of Discarded materials, 50.

28. Interview with Amarachi Okafor in her studio at the outskirts of Abuja on 3rd April, 2015.

*Graffiti art –a type of ‘street art’ is a graphic and image that is sprayed-painted or stenciled on publicly view able walls, buildings, buses, trains and bridges, usually done without permission and most time considered illegal or an art of vandalism.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art. Retrieved on 6 September 2011.

29. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Installation_ art&oldid=464340109

30. This is my personal evaluation about what Amarachi’s ‘Public art’ meant

31. See note 24.