In this series, Opara highlights some of the existing tensions between the cultures of animist belief and organised religion. The works inform the sensitive debate surrounding the demonisation and denigration of traditional religion instigated by colonial and missionary rhetoric, and more recently by the most dominant and visible forms of the religious belief systems in Nigeria and across the continent: Islam and Evangelical Christianity. These issues of power and representation are at the fore of present tensions and civil unrest between what is characterised as the Muslim north and the Christian south.
The composition of the Emissaries of an Iconic Religion images aligns closely with the formal photographic portraits of prominent Yoruba people in Nigeria, as well as with the art historical conventions of portrait painting. Using a large-format painterly style saturated with luxuriant colours, placing the subjects frontally within the composition, as well as subtly highlighting the symbols and paraphernalia of their positions, Opara attempts to re-assert the importance, the centrality and the vitality of local belief systems despite the incursion of external pressures.
Through 21 April 2013
Adolphus Opara: Emissaries of an Iconic Religion
Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos
9 McEwen Street, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos
3.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg "Exhibition installation view at the CCA Lagos")