41. CHIEDU OKONTA - A SPACE BETWEEN INTERACTION AND DISTANCE.
The artist discusses his creative process - LONDON.
Chiedu Okonta,“A 9JA Delta Speculative future”, acrylic and pastel on canvas, 2023, 91x121cm Image courtesy of the artist.
The painting you made of a figure in profile is fascinating, the subject matter, the symbolism, and the sense of the unfinished which is also finished... many questions here, please can you contemplate on your feelings towards this work?
Interesting question because I remember you saw the artwork before many people did. Actually, you saw the painting during its creation. My decision to create the art was to reflect a utopian reality which did not consider a realistic representation of what I hoped the Niger Delta region of Nigeria would be, but an idealistic representation of a feeling I hoped the Niger Delta would have. A feeling of hope and peace. It is a region plagued with insecurities, pollution, violence, and corruption. Where over presented materialism is seen as saviour and use of common sense as drudgery and propositions of cowards or preys.
The idea for that painting was never resolved from the start but started as a feeling based on the subject matter and body of work I was dealing with then. I allowed it to reflect the emotions in my personal life and in that sense, open to receiving as much feedback as possible. It held space for me to consider a topic that never seemed to get resolved, which was the exploitation and unethical exploration of natural resources in the region. It helped me to explore a space I was stuck in for a long time. Both the region and I needed room to exist from the financial anchors that seemed to prevent us from truly being free. A sphere that could repurpose everything to a healthier simpler form.
The background like a lot of my paintings told the story of the artwork. This time showing a rich surreal vegetation of a previously known garden city, which included structures rebuilt with minimalistic materials and unique identities. A young character faced forward, freely riding on a beach. It projects as a surreal dream, visibly expressed by the foreground semi-photorealist character. This character was vivid and present in permanent contrast. It wore minimal clothing as if about to swim or simply sitting in a domestic environment but also to reflect the freedom from the materialistic depravity that afflicted the region. The work evolved to present a character that was not thinking but more of a reflective wandering individual. Lost from the immediate environment and instead surrounded by thoughts, like a holographic 3D screen for projecting computer generated imagery. The character was also surreal and the only affixed part of my thought process behind the painting whilst the rest was in a process of revitalising healing motion. The painting was an expression of feelings and left to stay instinctive as you can remember.
How has your journey as an artist evolved?
I find myself in conversation always referring to my works as art. I have had to substitute art for painting even here. I used to draw and paint only. I plan, resolve, and then create. Now I start with a gut feeling of what I want to say and then I start sketching loosely leaving room for continuous evolution even to the point of “completion”. The medium I choose has become the best language for expressing an idea. I paint, I sculpt, I have enjoyed printing and installations. I create. However, there are mediums I prefer over others, mostly because of proficiency and factors such as the time available to transform the idea into matter.
I do love to paint even though I feel the medium is not always as important as the message and communication. Painting and drawing will always be special to me because of the pouring of visual images that come to mind and how fast I can put them down. I even see faces on inanimate objects and surfaces, which I mentally trace the outlines in the same way I draw. Maybe just a case of pareidolia.
I feel at ease now even if the work is not what I would in the past call complete or what my level of perfection was. Not important. I am comfortable to present the information and once I am satisfied, move on. Instead of the many unfinished pieces – as I called it- I have had to let go or just give out. I am more intrigued by what other practitioners do and constantly think of ways we can work together. It’s fun to see how I can continue evolving as an artist and adapting to the stimulus that courageously stands out to me.
Photorealism is extraordinary - literally extra-ordinary and in that space there is a certain new tension, a space maybe between technique and emotion - please can you reflect on why and how you use an image to express it?
Photorealism for me did not really come by choice. It came as a need to prove to those around me who mostly were not artistically inclined at all that I could show something that required more effort and precision over a figurative painting or drawing. Also, I would not really classify my work as completely photorealistic either. I try to get away from that and go beyond it. I do not want it simply to look like the picture, so I even make it flawed, leaving parts undetailed or humorous. I want anyone looking at my work to recognise the difference. In the past, I expressed the story and the emotion behind the piece with figurative loosely created backgrounds. A representation of what already existed, exists, or even surrounds you. While the foreground is a byproduct image or images you may refer to as photorealistic. I do this to create an interaction between the piece and the audience, urging and daring you to move past the vivid realistic foreground inwards to contemplate what strings and pulls together the value in the work, which is seen in the background.
Right now, I have come to the point where I am trying to create works that provide an emotional balance between the foreground and background and where possible create an illusion based on interaction and distance. A few artists I hold in high esteem have convincingly succeeded in doing that. At least in my opinion. I don’t know if that is how they feel, themselves.
As you have mentioned, for me it required a bit more patience, and in the space of putting in time you go through many emotions. A lot of impatience, a lot of stillness, waiting to complete sections so you can move on to more interesting and challenging parts, the frustration of time spent just to realise small noticeable changes, especially for anyone observing. You sit waiting a lot.
I remember running into you at The Anselm Kiefer show at The White Cube in the summer and we were both sort of dazed by how full-on the installation felt… which artists have inspired you and what work have you connected with recently?
Yes, Anselm Keifer’s “Finnegans Wake”. Astonishing exhibition. It is definitely one of them. The vision of the exhibition and the curation was overwhelming. It had a spirit that stayed with you. My mind kept going back to it multiple times a day for weeks after. It was sad, it was strong and heavy, however it left a glimmer of hope that was not tangible to hold on to or physically present but that you could taste. Very powerful exhibition. The medium he chose to use also had a profound effect on how I now see my choice of a medium as the most appropriate voice or language to tell the story. - How he used paint as the art itself and not just a medium to express the art.
Cinga Sampson: Nzulu yemfihlakalo was definitely another one. Photorealistic oil paintings are intriguing to me as the audience to interact with it. It had what I mentioned earlier, which was an illusion based on distance. I had been contemplating the idea for a while and when I saw his, I was very impressed with how he successfully pulled it off. Sokari Douglas Camp also because of her subject matter and choice of medium and how pleased I was to see how background and heritage could offer almost identical similarities in artistic ideas.
Julie Mehretu’s exhibition at the White Cube was another one I revered. It was a technique which was very innovative. The interaction between her creations and the audience was the art. Each layer of her work presents new information. Ken Nwadiogbu’s Fragments of Reality was thermal, heated, layered in mediums, and with the suspense of the journey’s been told. I have followed his career and have seen his growth as an artist.
I am drawn to the layers. How each layer of art creates a completely different part of the piece and how it tells a unique story on its own. A layer can be removed, and the art can still be presented on its own, but it aids in adding a separate identity to the piece.
Since writing these contemplations and interviewing artists I have really felt a point that connects each person - in the sense that each artist is at one with the media that they choose to express themselves - do you feel that you have a choice to be an artist?
A visual artist, NO. I never had a choice. For me it’s been about peace of mind. Even in my late twenties when I tried to run away from it and just be an engineer, I still could not. Visual art has been an element of struggle even though I showed an incline to it from an early age. It always seemed like something I was never supposed to do as a career or even at all. Out of sheer will and stubbornness, because I enjoyed it (and still do), I kept creating. Initially through drawings, then later paintings, now paintings expanded to include other forms.
This feeling of unease or struggle to keep art in my life is reflected in most of my works as a distant surreal realm or even dream-like apparitions. It usually serves as the impetus of the piece itself. Even now I could decide to be an Engineer with my experience and skill set but my very being continuously craves to be an artist. It has been an interesting interaction with the career of an artist for me. Like the dance between two black holes in the middle of a galaxy, coming together and then pulled apart. A world that comes and evades again. In between myself and me, Chiedu and Charles. Past and present become the present’s past again. A professional career which in the times I have held it, felt uneasy, unwelcomed, uncertain, and alien. However, this is the career part, never the art creation part. That stays eternal in and with me. My pursuit to become a career artist feels like a world constantly battling to remain unresolved but content.
A piece by Chiedu Okonta is presented within the RCA X HSBC - Across & Over exhibition - available to view until 29th February 2024.
8 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 SHQ