Earlier this month we welcomed interdisciplinary artist, and Guest Projects Digital alumni Chiizii to Lagos. Her practice spans sculpture, digital, performance, photography, music, dance, and research. Through her work Chiizii investigates the role of art in preserving Igbo food culture, utilizing art as a tool for both learning and teaching and emphasizing traditional and contemporary Igbo art practices in knowledge production and information exchange. Her Lagos residency is generously supported by South London Gallery.
Chiizii's research archive and teaching tool, Nni Bu Ogwu, which educates on pre and post-colonial Igbo food culture, was developed in partnership with Yinka Shonibare Foundation, Guest Projects Digital, University of the Arts London, The Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN) and its Director, Professor Paul Goodwin. The project was supported by the Genesis Foundation.
What is the current focus of your creative practice?
The current focus of my creative practice is to investigate and clarify the significance of art in maintaining Igbo food culture by generating an art practice guided by traditional and contemporary Igbo art practices, and use art making as a learning method and presenting art as a teaching method to calculate how these methodologies enable a type of information exchange and knowledge production that doesn't centre colonial styles of creating in the context of Nigeria and the diaspora.
What drew you to apply for this residency, and how will it inform your wider practice?
This residency will provide me with the experience of intentional creating and learning in Nigeria for my specific research concerning Igbo food, consumption and art culture. I imagine it will grant my practice a break from Western approaches to creating, re-centring where I come from and a reset on what tools to use.
Can you give us an insight into how you hope to use the opportunity?
I hope to use this opportunity to learn, experience and practice as much as I can in Nigeria to strengthen and further root myself in the why's of what I do. To make in the country that drives my research in order to create the best work possible for said research.
RESIDENCY ARCHIVE
EVENT: Nni Bu Ogwu
Event Date: 2nd May 2023
Chiizii concluded her residency with a guided studio tour, presenting her body of work, Nni Bu Ogwu: Food is Medicine. During the tour, she shared insights into her creative process, which combines collage, drawing, and painting, to explore the intersections of art, food, and culture within the Igbo community. Her research interrogates the significance of food in Igbo tradition, specifically its role in consumption practices, and examines how art can serve as an accessible tool for both nutritional education and cultural enrichment in today's world. Through this multidisciplinary approach, Chiizii offers a thought-provoking commentary on the power of art to engage with heritage while addressing contemporary issues of health and wellbeing.
ABOUT CHIIZII
CHIIZII is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher. Born in London, raised in New York and Igbo. Working heavily with but not limited to, painting, collage and textile design. Her work centres on the specificities of Igbo, Nigerian and African experiences and histories.
Her current research aims to establish the significance of art in the communication and maintenance of Igbo food culture. As well as the use of making art as a learning method and presenting art as a teaching method. Recent shows include 1-54 London, Somerset House 2022, RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy 2021, and Collective Processes Gucci Circolo 2021.
Chiizii's residency was generously supported by South London Gallery.
