To write about self-proclaimed folk artist Abe Odedina in the context of folk art is a strange task — implicitly and explicitly, Odedina’s practice roundly dismisses the validity of 'folk art' as a discrete category.
To write about self-proclaimed folk artist Abe Odedina in the context of folk art is a strange task — implicitly and explicitly, Odedina’s practice roundly dismisses the validity of 'folk art' as a discrete category.
On the contrary, his tableaus provocatively and consciously straddle its boundaries; here, their recognisably ‘folk art’ form dares you to label them thus. Certainly, in contemporary art discourse, 'folk art' retains troubling connotations of the colonial gaze, relegating traditional items to sociological curios. As Western cultures strive to readjust that dismissive lens, Odedina’s work offers objects which embrace their objecthood: a gesture both radical and very simple indeed. What is folk art but art which serves a function — practical or cultural, as the case may be?
Odedina paints on board rather than canvas, giving his compositions the solidity — and practicality — of shop fronts or municipal murals. His scenes are populated by deities and figures from diverse mythologies (Yoruba, Haitian, Ancient Greek) as well as those inspired by passersby or the artist’s own imagination. Meanwhile, his familiarity with the western canon sees elements of renaissance portraiture, Christian devotional painting and even pop art deployed with intuitive sophistication. Here is what is, they seem to say. I may know the game, but I am just a picture. Use me however you like.
