"Neo-Script: Village" by Akuzuru
Akuzuru Aiyetoro Ayo Talatu is the name that this Trinidadian woman has chosen
for herself. After studying Fashion Design and Merchandising at the American
College in London, and a Masters degree in Textile Design at Ahmadu Bello University
in Nigeria, Akuzuru has returned to Trinidad and continues to make clothing
as kinetic installations on the body. This interdisciplinary artist is interested
in experimenting with textiles as a sculptural form, utilising alternate media
such as paper, wood and clay. She is currently displaying her work called
‘Neo-Script: Village’ on the WallSpace at CCA7, a Centre for Contemporary
Arts, in the Fernandes Industrial Centre, until 18th July 2002.
As Africa has currently been identified as the place where mankind began, and that existence has stretched across the planet, Africa is where Akuzuru starts her creative process, the nucleus. From that nucleus, traditional ways of working developed into conventional and contemporary contexts, without forgetting the premise of the traditional styles. Akuzuru returns to natural fibres and materials, applying an architectural sensibility to cloth; fibre; paper; wood; clay – perceiving them as building materials, primary materials and tools.
‘Neo-Script: Village’ is Akuzuru’s new language, a reconnection to culture, a reconnection to the village or place where it all began and expansion to a universal space. She says that the "Trinidad & Tobago vernacular is an interesting amalgamation of drama and song, Hindu and varied West African expression, indigenous aboriginal elements, Chinese and Lebanese/Syrian inclusions and incursions of French, Spanish and English accents which are all contributing factors to the profound convolution of our syntax".
Akuzuru who was an Artist-in-Residence at CCA7 for a period of three months this year, has been exploring and re-exploring a number of media while in studio. Anyone who has been into the studio knows that they need to negotiate their way across the floor which is covered in wood, fabric pieces that she refers to as "her children", drawings and small clay sculptures. The walls have drawings as well as writing, the beams overhead wear dresses hanging like kites, causing the viewer to wonder how they are to be worn. Akuzuru asserts that clothing is an artistic platform from which many possibilities abound, to regard her work as merely fashion does a grave injustice.
Akuzuru will be giving a talk at CCA7,about her work as part of CCA7’s Talk Series on Thursday 6th June 2002. Also showing at CCA7 is Dean Arlen’s ‘Mi Casa Yo Casa’, an exhibition of installations and drawings in the Main Gallery until 22nd June, and ‘Southern African Stories – A Print Collection’ in the InterAmericas Space until 29th June 2002.
The Philosophy of the WallSpace – ‘Neo-Script: Village’
The Neo-Script is an
incentive to regenerate and foster a continual awareness of ‘soul self’,
within the context of the Trinidad & Tobago space, inscribed on a universal
canon of connected re-culturization.
The ‘Neo-Script: Village’ henceforth merges the parameters of practicing
ideologies in the Trinidad & Tobago space, the Caribbean space, the world
space and ultimately Space Eternal or the outer dimension.
This project lies adjacent to a paradigm of a continued fusion of cultures which
in turn sets a sequential procreative process, resulting in a newly established
culture albeit a monumental detriment to the preservation of old traditions.
At the same time, one recognises that culture is not static but an evolving
entity set on a rotation of hierarchical aggressive movement, it is the axis
of this rotation that intrigues me – the nucleus, as it is most significant.
Speech is not the only intrinsic factor in configuring a Script, as other contributing language forms include body dynamics (e.g. certain gestural nuances which are important for communicative purposes), theatrical performances, sound, architecture and other utilitarian artforms.
This exploration seeks to establish the hypothesis of deconstructing to reconstruct – a sculpturing ethos in soft and hard materials, engaging a plethora of paradoxes on this dichotomous platform. This is an exercise in self-expression, the primary tool here being the Word. This is about scribbles, delving back into our child selves and re-examining our purpose.
The script is an evolving process, where as an artist I continually seek to make some kind of intervention on the platform of communicative parlance, within the Trinidad & Tobago/ Caribbean/ Universal Space.
In my meanderings with experimental phonetics – one of the foundations of the language system – I have found that my performance pieces in cloth are a direct response to the phonetics within communicative patterning. Since performance is an integral part of language– I offer my pieces as script in part, for the Trinidad & Tobago space. From my pieces a newly devised script of symbology arises. The basis of my pieces is movement: i.e. body dynamics. One can discern this quality even in its static disposition, where an aura of weeping, circular organic motion is perceived.
Akuzuru 2002