Emmanuel Jegede: Joy of the Living Race October Gallery, London November 17-Decmeber 17, 1994

JOY OF THE LIVING RACE Oct ober Gallery, Lon don Novem b er 17—Decm eber 17, 1994 Olu Ogiribe Left: Emmanue l Jegede, The Gift, 1994 (Acrylic on card: 54 x 80 cm). Courtesy of October Gallery, London. iorary African Art • Spring/Summer 1995 EMMANUEL JEGEDE is perhaps better known for his large sculptures in wood and bronze. he has introduced us to his paintings and ceramics through a series of exhibitions in England, including a marvellous show in the Fringe Foyer of the London Royal Festival Hall in 1 9 9 1 . CHARACTERISTICALLY IGNORED BY nevertheless continued to show paintings from that show, in 1993 at the Savannah Gallery, and most recently in the "Joy of The Living Race" at the October Gallery in London. egede is a neo-ct assicist whose work is solidly sit uat ed wit hin t he t hemat ic and canonical borders of t he Yoruba aest het ic, and derives it s richness from t he seamless complexit ies of Yoruba world. His work is charact erized by t he closeknit t ing of element s in space, primat ion of shape and t he borderline, chromat ic exuber ance, f i nesse in execut i on, anat omical hyperbolism, and t he preponderance of f i gur at i on. Trained under t he Ekit i sculpt or Akereloj a, Jegede replicat es f ormal element s ident if iably specif ic t o t he Ekit i. In his f igures t hese i ncl ude bul bous f or eheads, deeply recessed eyes, massive noses, and prot ruding lips. We equally f i nd t he t hick, shor t arms and conical eyes which est abl i sh t he f or mal i st i c t hr ead bet ween Yoruba sculpt ure and Nok. To t his Jegede adds a privat e iconography of birds, snakes, mudf ish (reminiscent of Bini and Owo-Yoruba sculpt ure), and veget at ion, all of which in his world share animit y wit h humans. None of t hese are incident al or merely explorat ory. Jegede's work is st ruct ured on t he narrat ive. Dangerous as it is t o embark on t he const ruct ion of a grand et hnoaest het ic, it would be f airly accurat e t o posit t hat unlike in Igbo art where t here is almost always a direct t r ansit ion from principle t o abst ract mot if, from t he signif ied t o t he si gn, in much Yoruba art t here is a narrat ive int ercedent bet ween t he idea and t he f orm, an invariable presence of myt h. The st ory, as it were, is t he rout e t o meaning. For inst ance t he If a Corpus, perhaps t he most import ant and complex syst em of signif icat ion among t he Yoruba, is built on t he narrat ive. Ulli Beier reminds us t hat "t o underst and Shango's praise name: 'huge sacrif ice t oo heavy f or t he vul t ure, ' we must know about t he st ory of a f i ght bet ween Heaven and Eart h. " The primacy of narrat ive seems somehow t o conf irm, in a very pract ical way, Achebe's posit ion t hat "peopl e creat e st ories creat e people; or rat her, st ories creat e people creat e st ories. " The result is myt h, in t he Bart hesian sense of t hat which serves as a reposit ory of hi st ory and t ransf orms it int o nat ure. This cent ralit y of myt h is very evident in Jegede's paint ings. Here narrat ive is neit her linear nor synt act ic, not narrat ion but t he percolat ion of collect ive percept ions and conf igurat ions of realit y beyond t he f rames of t emporal logic and t he linear perspect ive. But f or...