Nataal contributor Lakin Ogunbanwo unveils his latest body of work, e wá wo mi (come look at me), at Niki Cryan Gallery in Lagos this week. The Nigerian artist showed the series at his Cape Town Gallery, WHATIFTHEWORLD, earlier this year, and regularly exhibits internationally, but hasn’t enjoyed a solo outing on home soil in several years, making this a special moment. “It is here where I know that viewers are fully immersed in the intricate layers of the cultures I’m portraying,” Ogunbanwo says.

e wá wo mi puts Nigerian brides and marriage ceremonies in focus. In his signature rich and colourful style, women in luxuriously veiled wedding attire pose in solitude looking regal and beautiful. Not only that, through their strong yet mysterious presence, these figures silently ask the viewer to consider the expected performance of love and weight of wifedom they must take on as they utter ‘I do’.

“The idea for this series came to me at a friend’s wedding, where I was incredibly aware of the changes she was undergoing - from things like her name change to how her life would continue to be,” he explains. “I also realised that beyond our understanding of these changes as observers, that she was deeply aware of what was being catalysed by these ceremonies, too. This work isn’t meant to challenge what it means to be a bride or their expectations. If it challenges any ideas, it is that there is only one way to get married or that Nigerian culture is only one thing.”

As anyone who has attended a typical Nigerian wedding will know, they are often lavish affairs that involve several days of events, customs and costumes. And as with many cultures around the world, the bride is the prize, the blossom to pluck, hence the modesty presumed by the veil. “I've used the veils to highlight some of the many symbolic ideas I’ve observed at these ceremonies - that the women are a delicate flower that is not to be seen by the world; that we’re not allowed to know what they are thinking or feeling. These veils may also imply they are a gift to be unwrapped for their man. These are all ideas that I believe are important for us to confront and question.”

This new work follows on from Ogunbanwo’s previous series Are We Good Enough – also on view at Niki Cryan Gallery and previously exhibited with Nataal at our 2016 New African Photography group show at Red Hook Labs. The series of obscured portraits of men examines the styles of hats worn by different Nigerian tribes and what they suggest about the wearer’s culture, social stature and presumed patriarchal entitlement. Seen together with e wá wo mi in the current show - alongside a new film debuting on Nataal that further brings to life the bride’s special day - Ogunbanwo’s work continues to break down monolithic ideas around African identities and create new ownership of its gaze.

e wá wo mi and Are We Good Enough are on view at Niki Cryan Gallery, Lagos, from 14 October to 3 November 2019

Read Nataal’s story on Are We Good Enough here.

Photography courtesy Lakin Ogunbanwo / WHATIFTHEWORLD
Words Helen Jennings

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Published on 13/10/2019