Visual Language:

This ongoing installation  mimics the concept of a chess game in the bid to provide answers to how an individual’s markings represent a unique story, shaped by their cultural heritage.

Just as each chess piece has a specific movement, each person with facial markings interacts with the world in a way influenced by their cultural identity. The concept of a chessboard serves as a central metaphor. Each square represents a facet of personality shaped by the presence or absence of markings.

These markings represented in each piece are depicted realistically, aided with geometric shapes, motifs, and symbolic community icons unique to specific indigenous communities, becoming the “chess pieces” on the board of identity.

To further establish the visual representation of identity, lineage, and spiritual connection, each individual piece interprets cultural elements through the lens of communal history, by highlighting the shared legacy and unique expressions of beauty and identity between the Benin Kingdom (the significance of the crown symbol in Benin’s bronze castings) and the Yoruba Kingdom (the tradition of tribal/body marks).

From the need to redefine beauty standards in facial Markings, there is so much that I have come to learn/discover: beyond the concept of shared aesthetics between the two kingdoms, but also how both cultures used adornment to signify identity, social status, and beauty within their respective communities.