Cape Town - Nigerian artist Samuel Nnorom from Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria, was named the overall winner of the annual international art initiative, Art for Change Prize, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.
The Art for Change Prize invited emerging artists from around the world to creatively respond to the theme of “Equality” for the chance to win a grand prize of £10 000 (about R217 000).
According to the organisers, they received over 2 500 entries from artists in 130 countries.
On December 8, the organisers, M&C Saatchi Group and Saatchi Gallery, announced the six regional winners of their annual international art initiative.
Neo Mashigo, chief creative officer at M&C Saatchi Abel South Africa and Art for Change judge, said: “Africa is brimming with talent and the world is waking up to Africa’s creative prowess. The talent available on the continent is monumental. I’m excited to see what the world would look like if Africa, the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent, unleashed its full creative potential. Art for Change will provide a platform to showcase African creatives and African creativity on a world stage.”
According to Nnorom, his body of work is made from pieces of Ankara fabric/ African wax print fabrics collected from either tailors’ debris or cast-off clothes from homes, and waste foams from furniture workshops, wrapped and stitched into bubbles of various colours and sizes through sewing, rolling, tying, stringing, suspending and cutting, which navigates boundaries between textiles, painting and sculpture in a poetic rendition.
“I am interested in the identity and meaning that fabrics represent, especially the Ankara fabric which is mostly consumed in my local community and West Africa. Fabric suggests to me a social structure or social organisation that weaves humanity into society, in the case of ‘fabric of society’ or ‘social fabric’. However, it is peculiar to different societies, while ‘bubble’ suggests a structure that holds or stores something for a period. My work processes through actions like cutting, rolling, stitching, sewing and installation to engage viewers in self-interrogation, critical thinking and questioning of sociopolitical structures and the human conditions of what truth and conspiracy connote to our daily lives wrapped in bubbles,” he said.
IOL