The ‘Natural’ Artist
(Amatoritsero Ede in conversation with Victor Ehikhamenor)
Maple Tree Literary Supplement - Issue18
Literature and the Arts
Amatoritsero Ede. First, I want to thank you for giving MTLS audience despite the short notice and in spite of your very busy life.
Victor Ehikhamenor: Thanks for contacting me.
A.E.: You are mostly known as a visual artist, but you are also a poet, writer of creative non-fiction, photographer and journalist. Let me begin by asking: where do you get the energy for all these highly specialized activities.
V.E.: I haven’t written a poem in ages, so I don’t know if I qualifier as a poet still. Anyway, coming to the point of having time and energy for these things, I just try to not expend my energy and time in things that wont enhance my work as an artist. Humans always find time for things they are passionate about. I happen to be very passionate about all the things you have mentioned above, so I create time for each. When you look at them deep enough, you realise they are interrelated at some point, and doing one also means doing all of them.
A.E.: The quality of your exquisite artworks speaks for themselves, however your formal education was not in the Visual Arts; how did you domesticate the artist in you; please tell us about your development as one of the leading African visual artists of your generation.
V.E.: I believe I was born an artist and to be surrounded with some of the best and wonderful traditional artist without the so-called “formal education” was the best nourishment for me. Seeing that I couldn’t walk past a work of art without engaging it as a kid was a signal for me. When you continually do something, at some point you have no choice but to become at it. Not having a formal training in visual arts was once not my choice because we had no art teacher in my secondary school so I couldn’t study it in the university, but when the opportunity came after I left Nigeria, I did not really see the need for it again. Apart from practicing art consistently, I have long ago formed the habit of reading and buying loads of art books from all over to know what’s happening, including the artists in my country. There is still a lot to be learnt and developed, constant quest for knowledge helps with endless innovation in my field.
A.E.: Are there connections – by which I mean, cross-genre influences – between your work as, first an artist, and then a photographer and a writer?
V.E.: They weren’t in the beginning, but the more I grow the more I realise that all have to work together to form a solid force in my creative output. My background as a writer influences how I title my artworks and write artist statements. In compositions, I deplore the same part of my brain when I writing, painting or photographing – how can I make the work interesting enough for someone to pay some attention to it. However, writing, painting and photographing is like having triplets – they may look alike but they have their individuality at the end of the day.
A.E.: You have had exhibitions in the USA, UK, Nigeria and elsewhere; most recently at the London’s Gallery of African Art between May 21 and July 19, 2014. What is the impact of this internationalisation on your praxis as a visual artist; for examples do you find yourself having to re-arrange an exhibition to suit a particular local audience?
V.E.: No, I don’t paint to suit a market, I paint what I like. I paint what makes me happy or make me sad. I may choose to exhibit a certain style of work in scale because of the available scale or the message I want to put across, at the end of the day it will still be Victor Ehikhamenor written all over the work.
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