Taiye Idahor will hold her first solo exhibition of 21 works titled ‘Hair-volution’ at A White Space, Ikoyi, Lagos, from November 8 to 28.
The artist, who has natural curly hair, the type many a Nigerian woman would die for, said during a studio visit that the project was informed from the question, “is this your hair?” which she receives as soon as people see her hair.
But where did the hair come from? “Apparently, it came from my grandmother,” is Idahor’s reply. This prompts the next question about whether she has Caucasian blood flowing in her veins, and the response is in the affirmative.
“We have been told that my dad’s mum is from Cyprus, but he never knew his mother,” the artist explained.
On what she is doing to reconnect with that side of her origin, Idahor says that is the whole point of the Hair-volution project?
But she disagrees that it is about identity, trying to find out who she truly is and less about her hair.
“Identity will come up, but that is not the focus. When I start asking my dad all those questions, first of all, he does not want to say much,” she said.
Her conclusion is that the father doesn’t know much, unlike on her mother’s side where you can trace the genealogy to many generations before. Of course, that is a project for another day, said the artist.
These works by Idahor, who has always worked with newsprint cut into strips and plaited like hair, are rendered on canvas and board as well as tracing paper. There are also sculptures. But the artist, who was part of the inaugural exhibition for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, said those will feature in a separate exhibition next year.
Asked if the works will still be looking the same 60 years after, Idahor said: “I am not carving stone,” explaining that people have been drawing with charcoal over the ages.
“This is what I want to do and especially with this project. I am dealing with temporality and the ephemeral subject of memory. Now I can start to defend the materials I use. They will last; honestly, they will,” she declared.
According to her, at a point she started to doubt what she had been told about her paternal linage. It was at that point that the ‘Hair-volution’ project made a shift from the idea of hair and identity to memory itself and how fragile it is.
In any case, those who will attend this exhibition supported by the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) will have a hard time forgetting these works.
She quoted from National Art Competition (NAC) three-time finalist’s statement for the exhibition: “The politics of hair is still very evident in the world today, quietly living among us while presenting itself mildly and progressively in our daily conversations and interactions.
“Hence a journey of self-discovery began in this project, with a focus on my family history; so content lies more in the process of creating the works and even less in the finished works. Through these processes and acts of drawing, tearing, weaving or distressing surfaces, I am unravelling and questioning myself and my identity.”