88 quotes found
"Therefore, the solution to climatic problems has to be collective. It is our responsibility to treat and handle nature delicately, so that it can be sustained."
"The roots are the vessels through which life passes to produce more. I am thinking about my own roots and of where I come from. Even when I am not in my homestead, I still feel very connected to who I am as an African."
"It is hard to discuss cultural elements without thinking about the environment and the universe."
"On one hand, I am thinking about how ‘good things ultimately trump’ in our world, in spite of life’s unpredictability and abnormalities. It is my mantra – a way to remind myself that life events always tend to have cycles, so good things will definitely come to pass, even when life seems grim."
"The climatic changes we experience are forced changes, creating much damage to humankind and the natural habitat."
"Through death, new forms are born. Even when it looks like something is diminishing or disappearing, it gives way to a whole new force. Death is always necessary for change to occur and for new life to come."
"Unlike Western societies, where you find a lot of organised stores and shopping centres, African markets are rather visceral, tactile, and very physical."
"Man has a symbiotic relationship with the Earth. We depend on the natural surroundings for sustenance, shelter and survival. Ecological and climatic conditions in the natural habitat reflect how well we manage Earth’s resources. We can only ensure our longevity if we protect and preserve the planet."
"Motherhood has made me more appreciative of and empathetic to others. It has also taught me a lot about the nurturing qualities of earth, which is the basis for most of my work."
"City bank clients have come in and said 'I want to buy this, this and this'. Or somewhere like the British Museum wants to buy this or that, and you think - wow!"
"The aesthetic qualities my pieces have are definitely foreign from other western ideas. It takes a long time for the West to accept that other people have ideas, or have worthy cultures and traditions."
"I was not good at painting so I thought I should try sculpture, as I liked putting my hand in my work. It is totally natural for me to make the work myself."
"I have a dream that the Niger Delta will be cured even though it is dying of oil pollution."
"When you meet Nigerians they are incredible. Their energy is incredible."
"In the first phase when I started art school, I started with paint, I was very excited about it, and I truly thought that I would be a painter, but what happened is that I didn’t really love any of my paintings! Today, I’m still highly fascinated by the idea of painting, but luckily I soon discovered that it was easier to express myself through sculpture to put my hands in something. It’s just that the two-dimensional approach wasn’t for me."
"I think we have become even more unequal. One time you could have a conversation about putting it right, but sadly today, a lot of it has still to do with money then since."
"It’s very hard to describe what you feel and what you see. When you try to couple it together and make a presentation, you attempt to catch something – and it’s kind of ironic -, you try to make something meaningful, but there can be flows. However, even when you are making an effort is important to have an open approach."
"Art simply expresses things that cannot be put in words, it’s a conversation for your eyes, and it makes you look at things differently. That’s just wonderful!"
"I believe that where the name Louise Bourgeois is known, the name Sokari Douglas Camp should also be known. Not only do both artists work in steel, but they have both made profound artistic contributions in the medium. Douglas Camp’s technique is unique. She does not cast her sculptures. She welds, cuts and bends sheet steel, wielding a blow torch as skilfully as other sculptors have wielded an adze."
"Act of kindness is as innocent and pure no matter how small it is and it can do a lot to help bring calm to a troubled soul."
"“The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.”"
"I am impacting positively on the general well-being of our society by grooming the children young. It also gives the children happy memories of growing up. Directly, these help the children appreciate nature and humanity."
"As a politician, I am a servant of the people and one of my tasks is to contribute positively to the community and ensure a better quality of life for all, especially our children who are our future heroes."
"There is humanity in art and charitable work and this is a powerful tool to use in politics if one is to serve the people correctly. We have to care for our youth, elders, under-privileged and those with other challenges. This is the focus of my charity and the message I send through my art."
"Education starts from teaching our young ones these values from an early age."
"It’s amazing. Kids love gardening. The point is that whatever you want children to learn, it is best to start early. They see it as fun, relaxing and the end result of seeing what they have planted blossom is satisfying. In order words catch them young. I also find it elating when I give back to those that will eventually run the world. In a way, it is one of my ways to gradually introduce politic to the kids; we do engage in conversations while working. I want to say I’m proud that as a politician I’m certain that I can impact a lot of positive changes in society, especially through the children."
"Virginity is a piority of every child of god.to be responsible really matter a lot because people will respect."
"Work so hard not to depend on any man for anything."
"Love is the key to happiness."
"Before you can learn to someone else you have to love your self secondly build your self esteem. And when we come to family. The family is the beginning of someone's if we are not able to manage the home well am not sure will have a good family, family don't don't depend on the biological father and mother. Love is all that matters in the life of the family for it to grow strong."
"To try to approach the immensity of Lagos is to, perhaps, try to stand amidst numerous dreams colliding in an ever-growing space."
"I want to raise questions around stories of human commodification and histories of exploitation and wealth generation in the Global North. My work explores the enduring colonial legacies of enslaved black bodies, the industrial complex of natural resources extraction, land and the issue of looted artefacts centuries ago from specific countries."
"I am an artist that is not defined by what medium I use, therefore it is irrelevant to me to find a core in any particular medium. It is tedious to deny myself the knowledge gained in experimentations. I do not know how many years of career practice I get in this life time so I want to absorb so much pleasurable experiences. I am centered on the philosophy of my art and whatever I require to relate this philosophy I will use."
"My philosophy is more significant to me than the differences in genres of the Arts."
"I make people see, this is my philosophy. I make people see through my own eyes and experiences. I am like a piece of glass that enhances the onlooker’s view; like looking through colored glass or concave/ convex lens or a window."
"Art is an avenue to make thoughts into tangibles and ideas into realities. I close my eyes and I dream things that art help me birth. My desire is to make beautiful things that often times channel discussions and art most definitely helps me achieve this."
"Art is my religion and my work is my praise. I know little else and I am aware of the lack of balance between my work and other aspects of life but I care little. Everything about me is art and I breathe art. I could be nothing but an artist. I am extremely passionate about what I do. The opportunity the Art industry gives is ceaseless."
"Humans are only a small, minute part of the ecosystem, but we as beings have forgotten this."
"Your ancestors are part of your life in the present, and they are also the ones who show you the way into the future."
"I don’t like the word “sustainable”, I never did. The whole system has to change."
"I wasn’t expecting this (winning the Nasher Prize for Sculpture), but I am extremely honored."
"A young generation will be able to consider the planet we live in and find ways of repair, connection and love.”"
"I think that everybody has, I hope, or tries to in this lifetime, tries to have a passion of something that you wake up in the morning and and you feel motivated by. You feel that it's necessary for it to be in this world and when we don't find that quest, and when we do not know, it leads to many Questions of existence."
"I'm very interested in the microscopic and the general, and how those two things intersect and play roles and expand our understanding of what we are."
"I am interested in this idea of what your perception is and what the reality of material is and what it can become. You realize how materials can relate to what our memory has registered. What happens if we play with that memory — try to break that perception and rediscover the material? If you touch it or smell it, it breaks our preconceived ideas of what it is."
"The work of Otobong Nkanga makes manifest the myriad connections — historical, sociological, economic, cultural and spiritual — that we have to the materials that comprise our lives."
"Otobong Nkanga maps urgent global problems but does so in subtle, enigmatic, and probing ways. She works with materials that draw on many different aspects of the world's resources, and the complex histories of those materials are embedded in her works. The intense and productive way in which she presents formal and material questions is what marks out her huge contribution to sculpture right now."
"Nkanga's work makes clear the essential place of sculpture in contemporary life."
"Nkanga’s work harnesses sculpture’s capacity to embody experience; uses the Earth’s raw materials to incite feelings such as belonging, nostalgia, retrospection—through objects, through performance, through textiles, drawing, painting, poetry. She affects her audience, while suddenly addressing issues of consumption, globalism, connectivity, and more."
"The prize (Nasher Prize) is awarded to an artist for body of work, for a trajectory, for some sense of promise, for an ability to move the language of sculpture forward, as I think Otobong does, in a very exciting way."
"Nkanga is broadening the concept of sculpture to be a sculpture about the anthropology of materials. Her work has so many trajectories embedded in it, from Arte Povera to tropical architecture."
"I see her (Nkanga) as an artist who works in sculpture, but who works across a variety of mediums and art forms. She produces installations, films, tapestries, drawings, poetry, photography and these are often brought together."
"Assemblies are portals where...flora is alive. I am introducing a West African cultural approach to alcohol consumption which is ritual, medicinal, mindful and moderate. My Assemblies are an opportunity to explore the very idea of ‘spirit’. The history of distilled spirits is alchemical and to me occupies a very powerful nexus at which spirituality and science meet...And the events do feel spiritual but they’re also very warm, rigorous and engaging. It is social medicine."
"That’s what it means to be an artist, for me, listening to the land and letting the land tell the stories."
"The fact that (the mask) was heavy was important — I saw information in that. This idea that, here is this material that’s petroleum-based, and I liked the poetry of how it has kind of prevented performance, but that they also look sugary. But the cost is so much more (than the traditional wooden masks). And they also make beautiful pictures quite frankly!"
"It's beholden upon storytellers, whether they are in the media or museum world, to tell deeper stories and to provide a point of connection, and that kind of hasn't really been happening. That’s because you need contemporary artists to go there and (for the institution to) be comfortable with a certain level of subjectivity."
"I do not consider myself an activist and never will. I hope nothing happens to me that forces me to engage on a single issue."
"I think regions are strong when they maintain strong cultural ties to their past and thus a powerful sense of self. Cultural power leads to other forms of power. So for me culture comes first, and contemporary art is a tool and strategy to uncover the past and develop cultural capital."
"“This is a period of their lives filled with awkwardness and bodily insecurity. In engaging with them, we can explore resistance and resolution through those bodies.”"
"“We aim to speak to the art world in their language, much of the time,”"
"“And yet, we also exist to reach those not in the art world, the tourists and passersby who might be intrigued by the playfulness and color. We’re trying to draw them in.”"
"In every studio, I always cover the table with brown kraft paper. It's partly to protect the drawing but also so I can have somewhere to scribble down words (which i love almost as much as I love drawings)"
"Ink and graphite. Photo transfers and glitter. For the most part, my material notices are very analogue. Drawing can be many things, but for me still incorporates a pencil on paper. All of my supplies can fit in my tote bag."
"From the minute I sit down to the minute I wrap up for the day, I stay with my headphones on, even if no one is around. It's always music, but today it was Quadron's album, Avalanche"
"“I think and know that religion is not race-specific,”"
"Our love embraces and sets free the best that is in us now and in the future"
"Together we are our better selves"
"“create interactive sculptures that collapse the divide between fine art and play spaces”"
"“I found that as a foreigner, embarking on this project with little knowledge of the local culture, it was easier for me to find value in what is available locally, especially because much of what I encountered was new to me. At the same time, I enjoyed integrating my memories of Lagos – histories of threaded hairstyles and plants, with these Italian references. In the end, I learned quite a bit and hope that I was able to begin a dialogue between these two cities.”"
""TEMITAYO OGUNBIYI AND HER PLAYFUL VISIONS FOR NAPLES - THISDAYLIVE". www.thisdaylive.com. Retrieved 21 March 2025."
"“I feel accomplished having gotten my kids to do the better part of their school work!”"
"“Teeming spaces and troubled vision make good fiction for thinking.”"
"“Information is one of the greatest currencies in Lagos,” Dike says."
"“Information is hidden and buried; it is inaccessible to the people and only permitted to those in power.”"
"“To fill a lagoon with a bottle of wine, without money etc… this is a miracle,”"
"“The artist is the one who has to mend the fragments for them to make sense,”"
"“A curious observer of the world around her, Ogunbiyi crafts forms that indirectly suggest the need for protective spaces that nurture.”"
"“Systems that capture, mediate, and direct the movement of people and matter is a recurring subject of investigation in her practice,”"
"“Her work considers both the overt and conscious as well as the unconscious or surreptitious categorizations that define and propel the fate of art in multiple contexts: institutions, the marketplace and the academy,”"
"“One of the things that I find most compelling about Tayo’s studio work is its engagement with circulation systems: the way in which products, ideas and images circulate in a global marketplace. … What Tayo says about circulation in her art — that it isn’t seamless or neat and that it can involve rupture, violence or misrecognition — speaks eloquently to the difficulty, even perversity, of defining or knowing identity (national as well as individual) in the 21st century.”"
""It doesn't matter what you call it. It is a sacred force that represents the experience of life that informs human beingness."
"“serve life in a life-enhancing way”"
"The veil of taboo and language scepticism lays itself over the works that are free from materialism and empty transcendence."
"Creative thinking and art are not measurable since they're testimony of the truth and inherent in all that exists. And this truth, the only truth, has many faces. Who can count the faces of truth? All religion are ultimately the religion of mankind. Art is ritual."
"And as with all religions, there is no true way to explain it along rational lines without leeching it of its meaning and intensely personal quality. You are a part of it and it is a part of you. You may, as so many have done, push it aside, but it remains in you…in all of us."
"‘Diane Esguerra is a very fine writer’"
"‘There’s something incredibly effortless and beautiful about the way Esguerra writes’"
"‘If Diane’s purpose was the intrigue and open the reader’s mind to Oshun, then she’s done a spectacular job as I’m now hungry for more learning on the subject’"