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Art People
Tony Enebeli
- The keeper of traditions
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The world keeps changing . Usually
for the better . But change also blows away
some good things. There's not much we can
do about that. But then there are people that
effuse to let the past be ; people that keep
remembering the way things used to be - the
traditions and cultures that change is blowing
away. Tony Enebeli is one of those people.
His art holds on to the past. You'll find
though that it holds on only to the good bits
of the past. Most of his art focuses on the
tradition of people in the Anioma area - their
festivals, cultures, habits, daily life -
all those things that modernity has eroded.
Some of these festivals are if not forgotten
today and emasculated version of what they
used to be. His Ukpalabo series deals with
the major ceremony in his village. The point
in the year when all members of the village
living outside the village are expected to
return home. To mark the occasion, the oldest
women in the village, followed by a procession,
walks into a hut and breaks a gourd. To many
people living in the cities, this sort of
activity isn't even a memory it's just something
that is alien. To a few it's a distant memory.
These festivals, like many aspects of Enebeli's
themes are fast disappearing. His works are
almost records to show that these things once
existed; testament for a future generation.
Some artists might choose to capture the good
and the bad. Enebeli seems to want to capture
only the good. His themes deal with the more
pleasant aspects of our past and ignore the
dark underside of the recent past. Even the
patterns on the work seem wholesome. It's
almost as if he's on a mission to seduce you
with the past rather than scare you. The festivals
are joyous, the people vibrant, the patterns
pleasing and uncomplicated. The end result
is that his works tend to look pretty. The
first thing that struck me about Enebeli's
work was its beauty. I wanted to own it, to
take it home with me, to have it hanging on
my wall. Years down the line that impression
hasn't changed. His works seem to have the
ability to seduce. He leaves the dark, complicated
side of the past to other artists. The artist,
Enebeli is like his works - uncomplicated
and easy to get along with. He admits his
passion for those festivals he dwells on and
says his mission is to build a bridge between
the old traditions and the new ways so people
can see where they are coming from and can
better appreciate where they are going. He
insists the past isn't just about the shrines
and the occult but also about the wonderful
festivals that brought people together. For
Enebeli his role isn't merely to capture the
past but to expose those tenets that made
that time so precious. Enebeli didn't get
any formal art training. He apprenticed with
Bruce Onobrakpeya for many years . In the
process he became like Onobrakpeya a printmaker.
Like Onobrakpeya, he works with cast and foil
, creating a mould and using a mix of glues
to create the artwork. His style is radically
different from Onobrakpeya's though. Enebeli
decided at an early stage to explore Nigerian
tradition . He however was clear on what he
wanted to achieve and saw the recreation of
these festivals and events as a tool, a tool
to uncover the gems that a fast disappearing
from Nigerian society - sharing, caring, harmony
unity…. Enebeli continues to explore old Nigerian
traditions. And the more he explores, he says,
the more he finds that looking back is usually
the best way to look forward. |
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