Her work situates her within a new generation of artists engaging memory, identity, and selfhood with nuance and introspection. It is a trajectory that signals both clarity of vision and an openness to evolution.
Stanley Kilonzo on the work of Jessica Ajuyah
The Shape of Memory: Jessica Ajuyah on Transformation, Womanhood and the Fluid-Self
A deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of how we remember, reshape and reclaim ourselves.
Memory as we often imagine it is linear, tidy, chronological, and even obedient. It arrives when called, resolves itself into narrative, and situates us neatly within our own histories. In The Shape of Memory, contemporary visual artist Jessica Ajuyah challenges this assumption entirely, creating a body of work that refuses to fix memory in place, instead allowing it to be “mumbled,” unclear and fragmented, shaped as much by omission and reinterpretation as by recollection itself.
In Ajuyah’s world, to remember is not simply to look back; it is to reconstruct, reinterpret, and in many ways, to become. Nowhere is this more evident than in ‘Orjogun’–an Itsekiri word for “warrior.” The figure at its center bears visible signs of struggle: a deep facial scar, a bleeding nose. Yet there is no sense of defeat. If anything, the work resists the dramatization of pain, instead reframing resilience as cyclical and ongoing–the quiet act of continually ‘dusting oneself off.’
This reframing of strength extends into ‘Silent Reverie,’ where rebellion takes on a quieter, more interior form. Here, resistance is not loud or confrontational but deeply personal–the simple, radical act of inhabiting one’s own choices. The work gestures toward a kind of autonomy that is often overlooked: the power of self-definition in spaces that do not readily allow for it. It is a reminder that agency does not always announce itself; sometimes, it is lived in silence.
Ajuyah’s exploration of womanhood becomes even more layered in ‘Chrysalis in Green.’ Created during a period marked by societal expectations around marriage and motherhood in her own life, the piece approaches maternal love from a distance–an imagined intimacy rather than a lived one. There is a tenderness here, but also an undercurrent of tension, particularly in the generational dynamics hinted at within the composition. The work suggests that this love is not free from expectation; it is shaped by it.
‘Homesick’ continues that interplay between personal experience and broader cultural narratives. Here the concept of belonging is anchored in something as intimate as food or dialogue. The work taps into a deeply familiar sensation; the longing for home that emerges most acutely in its absence. Cultural identity, in this sense, is not abstract; it is sensory, embodied, and often tied to the rituals of everyday life. To be homesick is not simply to miss a place, but to miss the version of oneself that exists within it.
If longing looks backward, ‘Fluid Self’ turns outward, embracing the possibility of change. Identity loosens, expands, and refuses containment. For Ajuyah, there is a sense of freedom in this refusal; recognition that the self does not have to remain fixed, but instead it can shift in response to experience. It is perhaps one of the exhibition’s most liberating propositions: that one can be many things at once, and that this plurality is not a flaw but a strength.
Visually, Ajuyah reinforces these ideas through a carefully considered language of form and motif. Florals recur throughout the exhibition, not merely as decorative elements but as symbols of growth and transformation. They bloom at different stages, suggesting that becoming is not uniform or synchronized. Each individual moves at their own pace, shaped by their own circumstances. Similarly, the use of faceless figures shifts the focus away from individual identity, opening them up to interpretation. An invitation for the viewer to see themselves within the work. The result is an experience that feels both deeply personal and broadly resonant.
These works form part of a wider exploration within the exhibition, where Ajuyah continues to return to memory, identity, and transformation in varied and nuanced ways.
What distinguishes The Shape of Memory from Ajuyah’s earlier work is its embrace of vulnerability and willingness to remain unresolved. At its core, the exhibition returns to a central question: who are we when memory itself is unreliable? Ajuyah offers no direct answers; instead, allowing the work to exist in its fluidity, embracing uncertainty as part of the process, an approach that marks a shift from earlier, more structured work into something more intuitive. It is a movement away from control and toward exploration–an openness to not knowing, to allowing meaning to emerge rather than defining it from the outset.
There is also an awareness, throughout the exhibition, of the broader landscape in which it exists. For women creatives, particularly women of color, the act of self-definition is often complicated by structural limitations and expectations. While progress has been made in creating spaces for these voices, gaps remain. Ajuyah’s work does not directly address these conditions, but its very existence within these spaces underscores the importance of presence: of creating work that insists on being seen, even within systems that are still evolving.
Ultimately, The Shape of Memory unfolds as an inquiry into how we come to understand ourselves–how we choose what to hold onto, what to reshape, and how we might allow ourselves the freedom to exist beyond fixed definitions of identity, culture, and expectation. To engage with this work is to be reminded that memory is not something we simply possess, but something we continuously make. And in that making, we too are transformed.
What emerges is a practice that feels both deeply considered and still in the process of becoming. As Ajuyah continues to refine her visual language, her work situates her within a new generation of artists engaging memory, identity, and selfhood with nuance and introspection. It is a trajectory that signals both clarity of vision and an openness to evolution.
The recent work of Jessica was in February/March shown in the Terra Kulture Gallery in Lagos
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