Animal skins have been a great treasure from time immemorial. From wall paintings which dates as far back as 5000BC in Egyptian tombs and other sources, evidence shows that leather is one of the earliest and most important discoveries of the prehistoric men which they relied on for survival and an integral part of civilisation development.
The new paintings of Joshua Adeyemi, an MFA student of the University of Nigeria using acrylic and leather weaving on leather shows the ingenuity and resourcefulness Africans are exploring to narrate their visual stories.
Joshua expressed that ”My inspiration comes with a thirst and search for new materials that will be suitable for me to manipulate and that will best present my intended theme on two and three dimension surface.
I choose leather because of it’s inherent colour and texturized quality and because it’s more resourceful for me to explore in addition to it’s suitability for mixed media technique.”
The works which are mostly metaphorical remind us of the contributions of leather to man over the ages including source of income, fashion accessories and other materials.
The artist further explain that over the recent years, he beging to question the idea of leather gotten from animal skin when compared to man skin, a perfect tool to disguise and hide their true identity from fellow humans.
The artist plan to create series of works in two and three dimensional surface including installation art that will provoke ardent thoughts and appeal to humans emotions using this his new Africa palette.
Africa Palette 