The commemorative activities of the The Rediscovery of Tradition, the on-going project by Pendulum Centre for Culture and Development have ended in Nigeria. The final leg of the exhibition is now on in Worcester, South Africa.

The exhibition, workshop, roundtables and documentary were preceded by a 15-month research commissioned by Pendulum Centre for Culture and Development. The research was carried out in five villages in Igbo land, namely, Nri, Agulu, Ogidi, Nsugbe (all in Anambra State, Nigeria), and Inyi. The exercise was led by Nigerian painter and theorist, C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, who had done some work on uli in the early 1990s. He was assisted by Okey Nwafor (painter and art teacher), Ozioma Onuzulike (ceramist and art critic), and musician, O’dyke Nzewi who had done some previous workshops on uli with some Igbo women classical painters in Nsugbe, Anambra State, Nigeria, in the early and mid 1990s.

Besides commissioning the women to demonstrate their painting skills on the human body and some walls, they were also encouraged to try out some of their ideas on paper, an angle which had been successfully explored in Nsugbe by O’dyke Nzewi while he worked with the traditional women painters under the directorship of German painter, Doris Weller.

The results of the painting sessions in the different villages and some of the actual works made by the women on paper all informed the exhibition organised by Pendulum, including the present one we are about to witness here in this hall.

Although one of the aims of the project is to bring the women classicists to limelight in recognition of the impact their works have had on some modern Nigerian art, as exemplified by the works of the Nsukka-trained artists and their followers, its principal aim is to return to uli in the cradle and possibly incite artists, craftspeople and product developers to examine it from fresh perspectives and see how it could be caused to transcend “the ivory tower of high art” and assume a more functional essence that can assure its pertuity in the present and, perhaps, the future.

For these reasons, the works of the uli women classicists are juxtaposed with those of their modern followers as a way of underlining the dynamic nature of culture and the futility of the absolutism that is the misfortune of modern Nigeria and Africa as a whole. A few functional designs are also included as pointers to the coming possibilities in uli. Although this happens to be the real fulcrum of the exhibition, we have not been able to stress it as should be due to paucity of funds. The original idea was to commission/encourage some artists and product designers to create some functional items employing the lyricism of uli motifs and their aesthetics. Although this could not happen effectively due to the afore-mentioned reason, it remains a major plank in the project to be further pursued by Pendulum Centre in the coming years from a Nigerian perspective.

The exhibition in Enugu and Lagos were well received by the different audiences. In both cities, they provided an exciting departure from the usual bread-and-butter exhibits which have become so prevalent in the art circuit in Nigeria. Most visitors to the exhibitions confessed that the shows were very educative and represented a useful bridge between the past, the present, and the future. From our own assessment, many of the young artists who visited the shows were positively affected, as new vistas were obviously opened to them through the critical and practical interface of classical and modern uli works. Above all, the exhibitions, through their major accompanying texts attempt a stylistic classification of uli, an aspect not addressed by previous subjects and studies on the subject.

The next stage of the project – an interactive workshop for selected students in the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka – is one of the ways of turning uli in new directions. The workshop which was formally opened at Nsukka on February 17, 2005, has been described by many as the very beginning of a second rebirth of uli for which the art department at Nsukka has been known for several decades. The workshop consists in the construction and decoration of a hut by the participating students as a homage to uli. The foundation stone of the hut was laid by Mr Gerard Chouin (Director, Alliance Francaise), assisted by Mr. Harry van Putten (Principal Consultant, PSU Project Consultants) with many artists, art historians, and students in attendance.

The contribution of the Nsukka-trained artists to the history of modern art in Nigeria remains matchless. But we believe that the present state of affairs in Nigeria and other parts of the continent makes extra demands on individuals and creative people. If our history as a people must make positive advancements, as should our rich cultural heritage, conventions and some prevailing traditions must be revisited and re-interrogated for the generation of new ideas which can provide us the road map to new horizons. Thus the uli art, though it has survived and succeeded in the ivory tower and in the narrow circles of high in the last thirty years, needs to assume new expressions if it must become useful to more people in our time as it was in time past.

The exhibit in Worcester, South Africa, is the last in the series of events that form the component parts of this project. But it is not an end itself. The project itself is not ended. The exhibitions, according to Peter Areh, Director of Pendulum Art Gallery, “are only part of our strategy for sensitising artists and craftspeople to the possibilities of uli. In the coming years, with the right kind of support, we hope to turn uli into a major resource for certain forms of functional design.”

The South African edition of “The Re-discovery of Tradition” opened on March 3, 2005 at the Jean Welz Gallery on 113 Russell Street, in central Worcester, South Africa. The gallery is accommodated in an imposing, old historic building that has attained some sort of heritage site status in the local community. The reasons are not far-fetched: it used to be the dwelling place of a very famous South African artist, Jean Welz who left a lasting legacy through his art. The building, having been handed over to the municipality upon his death, was transformed into a gallery by a group of artists who manage and run the gallery as a committee. It also houses some permanent collection of the late artist’s works.

The building spoke volumes of muted history and played the perfect host to a resuscitated tradition begging for a lifeline. It could have been an unconsciously crafted connection or a carefully engendered one between Jean Welz Gallery and the uli art tradition bearing in mind the historicity of the Jean Welz and the transpository nature and essence of the exhibition.

7.00pm on Thursday, March 3, a crowd of art enthusiasts gathered for the formal opening of the exhibition. Mr. Peter Vasser, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jean Welz Gallery gave a formal welcome speech and afterwards, invited Mr. Jaco Sieberhagen, who played some major role in the coordination of the Worcester end of the exhibition, to do an introductory remark on the exhibition. In his remark, Mr. Sieberhagen spoke extensively on uli, tracing his first contact with uli to January 2004 when he was in Nigeria for an art programme and expressing how fascinated he was by the spatiality of the engaging motifs of uli. After his remark, he introduced Mr. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi who spoke on other aspects of the project, and also on the exhibition as well as art in Nigeria. Nzewi briefly touched on the uli project, which he said was geared towards the rekindling of interest in this unique art form from southeastern Nigeria, and also to find more contemporaneous ways of making the art form interesting, engaging and relevant to the society. He cited examples with the traditional motifs and symbols of South Africa which had been exploited commercially as business-driven enterprise.

The exhibition now opened, allowed the milling crowd an unfettered access to the works on display. Indeed, it must be said that with the exception of Mr. Sieberhagen who had seen the uli forms in the past, none of the people present had a clue to what it was but it was amazing the level of connection between them and the art. The myriad questions they raised were provided with revealing answers by the uli team.

Prior to the exhibition, the uli team had visited a section of college schools in Worcester where the uli documentary was shown to the students and their teachers. The students were able to draw similarities between the uli and their local tradition also facing similar problems of extinction. The two schools visited were the De Ha Bal School for the deaf and the Hugo Naude Art Centre. The responses were that of novelty and excitement.

There was also a live talk show invitation extended to the Nigerian team by the Valley FM in Worcester. It was a good opportunity for members of the team to speak on the uli art form and on the entire project.

Works from the uli exhibition was also exhibited concurrently at the Whoosh Festival (a festival of wine treading) that ran from March 4 – 6, 2005. It was a big festival that provided a veritable platform to showcase uli to a wider section of people. The uli team led by the Director of Pendulum Center for Culture and Development, Mr. Peter Areh, was also involved in the art demonstration classes during the festival.

In all, the exhibition in South Africa could be adjudged to be a success, not when it is viewed from the narrow perimeters of commercial success considering the poor sales recorded but one could take solace in the fact that the project was never intended to be a money-spinning initiative but rather contrived as a means to sustainable economic development in the arts and creative sector. The strength of the project does not only lie in its energy, focus and futuristic ideal but also on its vision.