Modupeola Fadugba
Synchronized Swimmers, 2016-2017.
About:
Modupeola Fadugba (b. 1985 in Lomé, Togo. Lives and works in Abuja, Nigeria) is a multi-media artist working in painting, drawing, and socially-engaged installation. With a background in engineering, economics, and education, she works at the nexus of science, politics, and art. Fadugba works in series addressing cultural identity, social justice, game theory, and the art world within the socio-political landscape of Nigeria and our greater global economy.
From Tagged Series.
From Tagged Series.
Fadugba holds a BEng Chemical Engineering / MA Economics (University of Delaware) and MEd (Harvard University). Recent solo exhibitions include Prayers, Players & Swimmers (Cité des Arts, Paris, 2017) and Synchronised Swimming & Drowning (London, 2017). Selected group exhibitions include Afriques Capitales (Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, 2017); Dakar Biennale (Senegal, 2016); The Art Energy (London, 2015); and Design is the Personality of an Idea (Ford Foundation & African Artists Foundation, Lagos, 2015). Her project The People’s Algorithm was awarded El Anatsui’s Outstanding Production Prize (2014) and a 2016 Dakar Biennale Grand Prize from Senegal’s Minister of Communication. She recently presented on this work and her practice at TED Lagos. Fadugba has works in the collections of The University of Delaware and the Sindika Dokolo Foundation.
Flowers and prayers Series.
Statement:
Like play, like play is a body of work exploring play as a form of resistance to the suppression of freedom of expression and other forms of control. These works, centered around play and games, depict mental and physical playgrounds in which swimming, jumping and the flipping of cards and coins represent alternative viewpoints. Beneath the surface reside far more serious undertones: The works mirror challenges that exist -unspoken or spoken- in any social or physical space. Throughout the works, I’ve loosely applied elements of Game Theory represented by multiple players, who while limited by the presence of other players still try to further their own interests and gains….
Beyond fun and games, the title, Like play, like play bears dual significance: In Nigerian parlance, it is an expression used to describe a sequence of unnoticed events that culminate in an unexpected yet important outcome. I attempt with these works, to take a closer look at largely unnoticed events over time. For me, the beauty of creating artwork in thematic series is the way in which the ideas, concepts and visualization emerge, engage and transform. During the process, I revisit the first works in a series, and this feeds into new works. As such, this exchange is part of the metamorphosis of my own creative process and ideas and allows me critical distance and insight.
Though aesthetic quality remains a priority, my work seeks to move beyond this visual appeal. I intend to engage my audience in a dialogue about Nigeria’s current social and political landscape and perhaps incite both individual and collective change:
Chief and His Wives depicts a polygamous marriage under siege as a game of chess and visits concepts of power, gender and identity.
Flowers and Prayers Series.
Heads or Tails and Heart Side Up focus on concepts of duality and examine the changeable nature of values and their creation through the trajectory of time, chance and space. Tagged is a narrative about my observations about the key players and interactions in Nigerian art world.
Additionally, as a critical response to Nigeria’s troubling education and unemployment crisis, The People’s Algorithm is an interactive game where teachers, policy makers and students move along a monopoly-like board.
While much of my work is socially and politically engaged, my series Eight Days of Lazy is about my own physical and mental experience, and the importance of restorative introspective and stillness: The series speaks to the importance of artistic work and independence….(texts website artist)