‘African Textiles Today’

see blog entry 'Costume for Two' 

Fantastic to be included in this beautiful new book compiled by Chris Spring and published British Museum.  Images of my works ‘What’s Our Story ‘ a textile work commissioned by Brent Museum in response to the touring exhibition Fabric of a Nation. http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/search?q=African+Textiles+Today&q=African+Textiles+Today

Peckham Library Reading Group

Reading as a root to drawing and planning new artworks

The first reading group visit.  This could be what I am looking for as part of my project stimulus.  It takes place in one of the mysterious bulbous objects entered from the fifth floor the rounded room is light and airy.  We read ‘A Worn Path’ by Eudora Welty, in sections and discuss each section as we go along, just realised we didn’t discuss the title which in fact is very relevant... Oh well...It’s a beautiful story and the discussions were in depth as we were just five people. 

Next a poem by Langston Hughes, the poets name jumped out at me directly and I mentioned my interest in the Harlem Renaissance artists and explained that this is how I knew of the writer.  The poem ‘Mother to Son’ has hugely universal theme, but my knowledge of the period in which it was written lead me to feel the hardship that had evoked such a poem.

The session perfect, I shall continue to attend and take the opportunity to pick up a couple of bargains in Rye Lane on route to Station.

Poem to Peckham Library

Peckham Library is an ideal place for me to find the stimulation I seek, it's a perfect sanctuary to nurture creative thought processes.

Poem to Peckham Library

Comfortable, Refurbished, Cocoon,

Surrounded by clear plate glass, like enormous screens featuring urban landscapes,

The clear blue sky of today is giving way to a rose pink light that streams in through the metal rafters high up in the modern design of the roof.  

The library is on the fourth floor and the view from the Ladies’ toilet window is expansive. North facing it spans from the city to way-out West beyond the London Eye, taking the Shard as a central feature.

Reading Jackie Kay poems I sit on a seat in the teenage corner as the sunlight dwindles altering the light in the cavernous space.   I am relaxed.

 I occasionally look up from my book to observe my fellow librarians (best word I can think of for users of the library) or libritarians, (no such word) as the move around or occupy the single seat computer desks one behind the other in a row stretching back into the building along-side the window.  All seemed engrossed in their individual research pursuits, and the silence is only broken by the occasional bleep of buzz of a mobile phone, calling for attention.

There are no teenagers here in the corner.

I glance at the titles, Drama Queens, Angel Blood, Angel Fire, Blood Ties.......  Return to reading ‘Other Lovers’.

I can return to reading here in Peckham Library amongst the strong black building supports that stretch at different angles, the strange bulbous bamboo observatories floating above head height (What are they?) and the general quirkiness of the modern architecture.  ‘Going to See King Lear’.  

16th October

Black and White

What's up with the work... none getting done... ideas evolving of a local narrative since I sense the enormity of London my birth place and the cycle of my life Wow it’s been long one and still going on.  Look how old things look in this pic with my father and baby brother, I don’t look happy, and perhaps I’m already aware of the pending disastrous future ahead.

I feel a correlation with living in close proximity to Peckham or little Lagos as I like to call it and the fact that my father came here when so few African immigrants populated the London streets.  If he were to return?!  How would things appear to him now?   He would surely reflect on his experience as parent of a mixed family and compare it now as Londoners are a mixture of cultures with families of many origins and he would fell at home with the amount of Nigerians in Peckham .. wow home from home ?? maybe... these are the lines I’m thinking along..

Birthday banner

To celebrations Bruce Onobrakpeya's 80th Birthday – 

Textile hanging designed by Esbeth Court and Gloria Ojulari Sule from Eslbeth’s Maridadi Fabrics (Nbi, MA thesis); Making up, appliqué patches of wax prints and the sewing by me.  The hanging to be delivered by Elsbeth today at the celebrations.  Lucky her she is travelling in Nigeria right now.

New show

‘Textiles hold strong cultural ties for societies living in the Diaspora’

In this exhibition my works are made up of “fancy” and “Dutch wax” prints, traditional cloth and objects that are closely associated with contemporary and traditional West African cultural costume.  The work aims to exemplify relationships, tell stories and make links to journeys of cultures and identities.   In my practice I especially recycle fabrics from my own wardrobe, collect from other wearers and make regular trips to glean from the cutting room floors of tailors working in local West African communities.  In making my work I also use the latest fabrics, this is an essential aspect of the process which relates to wearers of costume in this country who always seek to dress to the height of fashion by obtaining the latest designs from their home countries or tailors here who stock them.   For me in using contemporary textiles and combining them with the more traditional I touch upon the historical journey, furthermore links are made to the objects and attachments I use as representative of protective elements.

Confronting the Other, 40x40cm mixed media on textile  2012



'Life' mixed media on textile 40x30cm 2012