IFEOMA U. ANYAEJII

I am a Neo-traditional Nigerian artists whose practice embraces the traditional Nigerian (African) environmental and aesthetic concept of reuse and extending value of expended or displaced material objects, using a method and style I developed called Plasto-yarning / Plasto-art.

I repurpose discarded non-biodegradable plastic bags with a receding traditional Nigerian hair-plaiting technique, called Threading (also know as Ikpa Owu – in Igbo language)1. The aesthetic metamorphoses of these chosen discarded ubiquitous mediums and craft technique, through repetitive physical manipulation, are usually in form of very instinctive, organic and sometimes conceptual sculptures and installations that reference domestic spaces, furniture, architectural forms, reiterations of my cultural experiences, and discourses about the human body.

By metaphorically and spontaneously engaging the “old” (most times excluding anticipated conventions of object making), highlighting the mark of the hand through supposedly menial creative techniques, I am constantly questioning the implications of our modernity’s: consumptive systems of mass accumulation, waste generation plus attitude to value, cultural assimilation and colonial orientations on beauty, authenticity and newness (including psychological and material appreciation of African / minority cultures in post-colonial contemporary societies).