Ndidi Dike "State of the Nation" 

 New Works and Installations

 Recent Solo Exhibit at the National Museum Onikan, Lagos 

 February 2016

Artists Foreword

Certain occurrences and configurations that we encounter in our everyday life precipitate a quilt of mixed viewpoints concerning our collective experiences.  It is this that provided a catalyst or premise for exploration, research and visual conversations in the form of this exhibit.  The idea was probably subconsciously gestating in my mind for years but most recently manifested itself in my identification, selection, and specific employment of objects as    material metaphors for firstly power, petroleum and politics (political power can also be viewed through a strictly political lens as mirroring the many ills of a lack of a responsive government and the quest for power at all costs) both literally and figuratively as a phenomenon. At the same time realizing that I could not express myself  succinctly and adequately enough with  media I had been known to  have used in the past, I needed potent objects and materials that carried there innate significance , abandoned use ,physical and visual  power, besides in-depth symbolism that could compliment , harmonize and  extend the life of what I wanted to say in my exhibit titled  State Of The Nation . Secondly,  power is also used  in other contexts  manifesting itself in many forms and guises e g, social and economic issues, a dilapidated infrastructure, health services, inadequate electricity which has become a potent symbol for the rot and gridlocked sectarian power system that infiltrates our society. The Chibok debacle continues to haunt us and is aptly described by a Wole Soyinka quote “It is a complicated scenario, a toxic mix of religious fundamentalism, political arrogance and greed for oil resources.” We must not forget that we the masses, the citizenry, the retired military and the elite play a huge role in this pervasive and endemic quagmire of corruption and so called democracy.

Ndidi Dike

February  2016.

Speaking Truth to "Power:" Ndidi Dike's State of the Nation

Ndidi Dike is clearly one of the most visible artists on the Nigerian art scene. She is also one of the most consistent since her break out exhibition at the Imo Concorde Hotel in 1986. Over the last thirty odd years, she has evolved as an artist, moving across diverse art forms, employing multiple media, and seeking new directions for her work. It is that endless search for a mode of address that can hold public imagination while retaining the transcendental quality that all great art must command.  A self-described cultural activist, Dike has sought to use her work to engage with matters of culture though bearing in mind that culture is a construct shaped by the imperatives of the immediate social environment in previous solo exhibitions such as Totems and Signposts at Goethe Institut in 2002 and Unknown Pleasures and Competing Tendencies at the National Museum, Onikan, in 2012. In the last few years, she has focused greater attention on hot button social, economic, and political issues around globalization, migration, and consumerism. She has also shined critical light on historical events that continue to impact contemporary consciousness such as the legacy of the trans-Atlantic Slave trade which was the subject of the acclaimed exhibition Waka-Into-Bondage: The Last 3/4 Mile at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos in 2008.  That Dike's advocacy is genuine is no longer in doubt. This present exhibition titled State of the Nation further cements it.  

It is the first in a series of staggered exhibitions planned by Dike in 2016 to examine aspects of our national life. The others will hold at different junctures this year. State of the Nation explores the theme of power writ large but with a dedicated focus on the abject political leadership and energy (that is to say, electricity and other forms of petroleum-derived energy that is suppose to drive the economy) situation in Nigeria. More than anything else, the two ideas or dimensions of power shape the existential consciousness of Nigerians. Sadly, both have been largely defined by malfeasance, sleaze, and hopelessness as the four works that comprise the exhibition suggest. Using a rickety wheel chair, painted gold and surrounded by a blanket of expended bullets stitched together in Untitled 1, Dike presents the tacky and imperious brand of political power in Nigeria in which the winner takes all. In addition to interrogating the absence of any real understanding of statesmanship on the part of Nigeria’s political class, she draws attention to unbridled vanity, venality, irresponsibility, and intellectual poverty that have trailed the political landscape especially since the fourth republic. As such, it is hardly surprising that 219 Chibok secondary school girls remain missing nearly two years since they were kidnapped. What nation, except Nigeria, would display such callous lack of compassion and wanton irresponsibility to its young folk? Dike addresses this sorry state of affairs in the deeply emotive installation How Much Am I Worth.

Like Untitled 1, Untitled 2 examines the perplexing dynamics of political power in the country. Here Dike uses the cooking stove as a visual trope but also as a metaphor in addressing how the political class (both men and women) is a tightly-knit group with a common agenda to appropriate the nation’s commonwealth for itself, party-affiliations notwithstanding. The back story for this particular piece is the 9.2 billion Naira earmarked by the last administration for the purpose of buying kerosene stoves for indigent women. Dike treats the stove as a symbol of corruption, misappropriation, and misplacement of priorities. Finally she addresses the unsteady power supply in spite of the insane amount of money that has been sunk in that sector by successive administrations since 1999 in the installation titled National Grid. This installation draws our attention to a dream deferred, what Nigeria can become given its industrious and highly-driven population; an economic giant in the true sense of the word. With these works, Dike addresses the main issues that majority of Nigerians contend with, and amplifies the role of the artist as conscience of society in trying times.  

Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi PhD

Curator of African Art,

Hood Museum of Art,

Dartmouth College, USA

Consulting Curator

   
     Untitled 1

    
     Detail Untitled 1

    
    Detail Untitled 1

    
    How Much Am I Worth? 
       Width 78 cm x Breadth x 171 cm Length 195 cm
       Appropriated Dormitory Bunk Bed, Slippers, Mixed Media etc.
       2014-2016

    Detail How Much Am I Worth?

      Untitled 2 
      Length 277 cm x Breadth 181 cm x length 277 cm
      Appropriated kerosene Stoves, Acrylic Found Objects etc.
     2016

    

      Detail Untitled 2

    

     National Grid
     Length 1, 220 cm Breadth 620 cm Width 41 cm
    Appropraited Petrol Nozzles, Motorcycle Parts, Generator Tanks, Kerosene Stoves, Mixed Media etc.
    2016 







    

     

        Detail National Grid

                       
                                             Detail  mirror floor installations to National Grid  " Accomplices"