UKHURHĘ: MATTHEW EGUAVOEN
21 MARCH – 27 APRIL 2024, AFIKARIS GALLERY, PARIS
The exhibition Ukhurhę underlines the importance of a listening and support system – physical and spiritual – to cope with depression. Eguavoen’s painting insists on the strong relationships between individuals and stresses how these spiritual and human bonds – family and friends – lead to healing through a freedom of speech and breaking away from taboos and stereotypes surrounding mental health.
Depicting faces with a stress expression and a piercing gaze, Matthew Eguavoen portrays Nigerian society. Staged in a familiar interior, his models mirror social issues. This new body of work, gathered under the title Ukhurhę, centres around depression and regrets that mental health has been for a long time – and still is – neglected, stigmatised and made invisible on the African continent. Each image carries an intimate story and emphasises the complexity of personal internal conflicts. The artist’s experience hides behind these portraits, himself being involved as a witness of the global malaise spreading among the youth.
While seeking inner peace and support to overcome his burden, Eguavoen has engaged with the culture of the Edo region, where he is from. In this context, his father talked to him about the ukhurhę. A carved wooden staff representing the ancestors of the family, the ukhurhę links the physical world to the spiritual, connecting the living to those who have left. Commissioned by the eldest son at the death of his father, it enables them to stay in contact, the father becoming the mediator with the ancestors. Eguavoen initiates the idea of reconnecting with traditions as an answer to suffering and in order to find the path of appeasement.
Within the calm of the exhibition space, the characters – visibly impassive – stare at the viewers, hinting at their worries as if calling for help. On the canvas, the faces of those who left the living to join the spirits are concealed. These double portraits testify to the connection with their ancestors – materialised through the ukhurhęs that close the exhibition within a shrine. It displays three ukhurhęs, – stressing the natural cycle of generations – alongside objects of offering. Commonly, when the eldest son entrusts the family shrine with his concerns, it is a way to leave them behind as they are now to be dealt with by his ancestors. Eguavoen sees this practice as the traditional version of occidental therapy. Hence, with the mention “My Family’s Therapist” above it, the installation encourages one to share their sufferings, if not with the living, at least with the spirits, to alleviate them.
The exhibition Ukhurhę underlines the importance of a listening and support system – physical and spiritual – to cope with depression. Eguavoen’s painting insists on the strong relationships between individuals and stresses how these spiritual and human bonds – family and friends – lead to healing through a freedom of speech and breaking away from taboos and stereotypes surrounding mental health.