Eghwere: Reflecting on Man the Hunter

Eghwere by Bruce Onobrakpeya 2010, Mixed Media and installation 1.6m X 3m Picture taken courtesy of Dele Jegede

Eghwere is the Urhobo muse for successful hunting. It is used by Bruce Onobrakpeya as a metaphor for reflecting on man’s quest and struggle for survival. His efforts in different fields of endeavor is likened to those of  hunters equipped with bows, arrows, cutlasses and guns with which they hunt down game for food and his other requirements.

Similarly the pen, compass, camera, computer, microscope etc  though modern implements, also become tools in man's hands for achieving set goals that will help him to survive and improve his life.

Adapting the traditional shrine composition, the above concept have led to the creation of installations which show man as an achiever and crowned for his efforts with success. He is seen dressed, as a masquerade that has been embellished with many trophies, and is located in an imaginary forest dotted with standing pillars that double as  trees and animals

Like the traditional shrine, these installation changes with time . Some of the objects within  one background may be renewed with fresh colours or even replaced . Whereas the traditional shrine tends to remain fixed in one setting, the new experiments by Bruce are nomadic  in the sense that they may often be moved from one exhibition site  to the other, and for sheer compositional excitement,  the objects in different installations are nearly always interchangeable to form other groups.

Rarely Seen Masterpieces of African Art: Installation and Mixed Media by Bruce Onobrakpeya

According to Onobrakpeya “Africa is a dumping ground for many Euro-American and Asian goods. How does one therefore, salvage Africa of these unwanted wastes and make the best of an ugly situation?”

Bruce Onobrakpeya embarked on installations as an art form during the Period (1995 - 2005). Installations and Mixed Media done by the artist, are works done which are characterized by the arrangement of different discarded materials to create works of art. The list of materials used is inexhaustible; jute bag, animal bones, hide and skin, discarded metals, foil paper, plastics, beads of all colours, used engine spark plugs, discarded computer mother board, PVC pipes, bottle corks, CDs, chains, twines, cowries etc. The unconventional materials that has been sourced by him and used in art making, exemplifies the height of material appropriation, born out of the need to solve societal and personal artistic problems.

These installations were essentially to draw attention to importance of protecting our environment. This is perhaps what motivated him to join forces to realize the overall philosophy of waste to wealth which Nigeria is preaching in all aspects of her socio-economic life.

According to Prof Egonwa in his essay the Rewards of Creativity. “The term assemblage often used to describe his installations does not carry the fullness of what the spirit of artistic assemblage in pictorial elements (items which are assembled in one composition) offer, as the French rendition of the same technique in music or theatre, ensemble presents. This is because aesthetic individuality of disparate elements given, denied, and integrated in the unity of composition evokes a higher affective presence in his works. Here the various elements manifest the beauty of simultaneity as in a musical ensemble. Here one encounters the tacto-visual equivalent of the musical kine-aesthetic ensemble. ”

Works in this category include Cathedral, Voices of silenced Voices. Standing Nomadic Forms, Divination Bowl and Environmental Regeneration.


Enjoy these breath taking and rarely seen Masterpieces of contemporary and modern  African art. 

Eghwgre (Hunting) Installation

 *Photographic Credit Prof. Dele Jegede

Wall Hanging

Cathedral

Standing Forms

Scavaging In a Lost Paradise

Twin Nomadic Forms

Divination Bowl

Environmental Regeneration 


*all other pictures courtesy of Mr. Bode Olaniran