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"lAYERS OF IDENTITY"

This piece is from my ongoing mixed media series: Layers of Identity (an extension of the iLÀ Project)

As @chimamanda_adichie warns in The Danger of a Single Story, people are more than one dimension of their being. Identity must be spacious enough to carry joy and trauma, ancestry and innovation, visibility and erasure

Layers of Identity (ILÀ) challenges us to think about what it means to “wear” our history: especially when the world tries to tell us who we are based on how we look. In this way, our bodies become both personal and political.

This theme is central to my ongoing mixed media series, which explores the markers, masks, and meanings that construct who we are – an extension of the iLÀ Project

Our society today is increasingly defined by hyper-connectivity, migration, and digital personas, it’s now a place where identity has become a layered and fluid concept.

Where once identity might have been fixed (tied to geography, ethnicity, or lineage), modern-day culture invites a more complex, multidimensional view of the self.
Now, identity unfolds like a textile: woven through memory, community, technology, and resistance.

This theme is central to my ongoing mixed media series, which explores the markers, masks, and meanings that construct who we are – an extension of the iLÀ Project

"INTERSECTIONS"

(Charcoal, Acrylic and Acrylic Gel on Canvas)

Growing up around the energetic landscape of Lagos, my childhood aspirations were branched between the pitch and the pencil. While my professional trajectory eventually anchored itself in artistic practice, the latent energy of the athlete remains a foundational pulse in my work.

This project serves as a visual honorarium, a tribute to that parallel life and the formative dreams that continue to inform my creative rhythm.

“Intersections 01” employs a blend of abstract and representational elements to communicate a bold narrative around movement, dance and athleticism. It acts as a formal homage to a first ambition (football), reclaiming the vigor of athletic play through a refined creative lens. It is an elegy to a childhood dream, rendered with the maturity of the adult practitioner.

"INTERSECTIONS" (The Creative Process)

"INTERSECTION" Docu-FILM

Coming Soon

Discover the Research and Creative Process behind this work and many more works from the Series

This project explores the intersection of dormant athleticism and active creative proficiency. In the context of a Lagosian upbringing, the roles of footballer and artist for me were not disparate but intertwined modes of self-expression. By revisiting my childhood duality, this piece functions as an archival tribute to a ‘halted’ physical ambition, translating the dynamism of the field into the permanence of the artistic form.

The elements employed are intentional to propagate a transformative experience that celebrates the heritage of African culture, rooted in the nostalgic dualities of youth. This work navigates the space between what was pursued and what was preserved.

The “puzzles” of MLK’s face and the “puzzles/cubes” suggest that his legacy is a complex, deconstructed, yet fundamentally solid foundation upon which future generations, like the young boy build their dreams.

My intention is to present a mood of dynamic motion and layered identity. The central silhouette of a figure in athletic motion is intended to convey dynamism and energy while i have also employed the juxtaposition of MLK’s face: a figure of historical weight and purpose, with the youthful gaze of a boy aspiring to greatness, to create a mood of hopeful continuity.

iLÀ

Solo Art Exhibition by FATOLA

Lagos

The Marks We Bear: The Stories We Tell

The exhibition addresses very important issues around how we navigate the challenge of honoring our cultural heritage while also embracing modern values and lifestyles.

How does the intersection of tradition and modernity impacts one’s sense of self?

It gives answers to how Individuals often embrace facial markings as unique markers of their ancestral connection, regardless of contemporary beauty standards.

“iLA” holds deep meaning as a statement of identification in West Africa.