Ikeorah Chisom Chi-FADA

Could you introduce yourself please?
— I am Ikeorah Chisom Chi-FADA, a contemporary figurative Visual Artist from Anambra State, Nigeria; born in 2000 in Lagos State, Nigeria. I grew up amongst very creative peers so artistic inspiration began at a very young age. I had a best friend at school who could draw exceptionally well too, we used to express ourselves using comics, drawing on walls, schoolbooks, chalkboards, anything we could find. We even sold sketches to our friends and got commissioned to draw assignment diagrams. We were usually sought after in school to help teachers draw illustrations and diagrams on boards. Being an artist as a young child gave me a lot of purpose and happiness and I became very passionate about it. My mum wasn’t happy about it. My dad was also a draughtsman as a young man but he had to quit to “learn a real trade that pays”. My mom didn’t want to see me thread that path so she had my teachers disconnect me from my friend and stop me from drawing. Due to constant pressures, I had to entirely stop drawing as a kid. An incident occurred where I almost lost my only sister to a fire incident when I was six, I experienced trauma and depression as I young child and I found myself drawing secretly as a means of expressing my trauma. This incident is currently a recurring influence in my artistic practice. I began my career as a professional artist in 2018. My personal motivation is to create a legacy through my art that would make my father proud. He believed in my passion as an artist and supported me behind the scenes. The name Chi-FADA is a tribute to his influence on my personal development and my career as an artist.

How would you describe your artistic practice?
— I would describe my artistic practice as “an evolving story” inspired by my personal experiences and association with my social environment. My artistic practice is imbued in the study of Black bodies as envelopes of personal experiences beyond the social construct of the skin. This practice allows me to explore the complexities of humanity. Every person has a story. Every face archives experiences that are psychologically and emotionally embedded. My goal as a figurative artist is to create work that is visually poetic and at the same time, deifies my subjects in their domestic and safe spaces whilst telling their stories and my own stories through a visually poetic play of light, composition, texture, patterns and the use of charcoals and acrylic on canvas. With this, I hope that my work can become a catalyst to trigger self-discovery of value, beauty, and significance among people who in some way may feel marginalized. Additionally, I desire to invite viewers to discover and value the humanity of various backgrounds and beliefs. Life is a continual experience of discovery and it presents an intricate maze of challenges and opportunities for each one of us to navigate. This is a journey, and I am exploring this journey through my paintings.

Can you explain some elements of your works? Why do you paint in bright colours? Is the flame seen across your works inspired by your sister’s incident? And why do you have borders around your paintings? 
— Most elements in my works are conciously or subconciously inspired by my background and personal experiences. I grew up across several Nigerian Catholic homes, even though my parents weren’t Catholic. All of these homes had celestial paintings with Jesus or Mary painted in very bright colors. As a child passionate about art, I was fascinated and curious, and I got to understand that the artist painted them that way to show how glorious and divine they were. Some of my many influences are from Dutch Baroque painters like Vermeer, Caravaggio and Rembrandt and even more recent Contemporary painters like Gregg Kreutz and the Nigerian maestro Tega Akpokona. I am fascinated by the way these artists tell their stories with the play of light. Asides role of light in centering my subject as the focal point of the composition, light in darkness signifies hope which is also an important narrative in my works. Yes, the flames recurring in my works are inspired by my sister’s incident. Seeing her maintain a positive attitude going through such experience at a very young age is the most inspiring lession I have had to learn. It shaped my mindset that her having to pass through that made her stronger and more courageous. Using the flames now in my paintings is a methaphor signifying a transition from being ordinary to immortal. As an undergraduate of Urban and Regional Planning, when we draw city plans, we draw borders around them to center the drawings and help the viewer focus on the plan with other components of the plan placed at the side. Adopting this into my practice as an artist, by employing patterned borders in my paintings, I aim to make the viewer connect intimately within the composition of the painting.

“My artistic practice is imbued in the study of Black bodies as envelopes of personal experiences beyond the social construct of the skin.”

  What does your work included in this exhibition aim to say?
— The three works included in this exhibition are excerpts from the Stories of Gold project titled Bosah in Gold,Derrah’s Seat at the Table and The Fist respectively. Bosah in Gold is a painting with my friend, Chiderah Bosah as the sitter. The painting was created during a private residency during the heat of the End SARS protests against unjust killings, police brutality and profiling of the youths in Nigeria.

At the moment, the fragility of human existence and the responsibility of documenting history and immortalizing our people became heavy on me as an artist. As an artist using his art as a journal of his personal experiences, documenting the life of friends who have left me with a story to tell through my paintings that would be read for generations to come has become a purpose. A purpose to tell the golden stories of my people by creating a space that honors their presence and place in and through culture and time through my paintings

Derrah’s Seat at the Table is a continued conversation to Bosah in Gold in the Stories of Gold project. The painting was inspired by my conversation on our responsibilities as young Nigerian contemporary artists championing a cultural revolution and the fate of the next generation. In recent times, it is said that Black artists are now being given a place at the table in the art scene. How are we being offered a place at the table when we own the table? Painted on the table is a book titled Black Futures; a book focused on the radical, provocative and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth into history. At a time when it is fragile to live as a young Nigerian creative, it is vital that I paint about the legacies we intend to leave behind and tell a story that would be read for generations to come. Experiencing the End SARS protests left me with a mind-shift and a quest for self-discovery. I saw power play in a way that I had never seen it happen. I realized how powerful we are with our “fists” held high in unity. We were so powerful, that innocent protesters were shot at with guns and ammunitions. This was the inspiration behind the painting titled The Fist. Beyond a tool for fighting a place in the world and against injustice, the act of making The Fist is a culture; if culture is defined as the way of living, as a young Nigerian, I have had to live through injustice with my fist as the only system of getting justice. With The Fist, I hope to document power into history to empower the future generations to come and ignite a self-discovery of how powerful they also can be – as a force in unity with their fists. 

As an artist in Nigeria, what are some of the challenges?
— Every society has its peculiar challenges which in most cases, depending on the artist, can become inspiration or motivation to work harder. Asides the basic challenges of lack of institutions like museums and the mismanagement of available community art centers, the biggest challenge I face as a Nigerian artist, is living with the stereotype that perceives most Nigerians as fraudsters and that, in Nigeria, sees every artist as “starving”. You can almost taste the disrespect in your tongue when you get to interact with most gallerists, curators, collectors or art patrons because of these stereotypes. However, like I said earlier, I really do accept this as a motivation to work harder and leave a legacy that overturns this stereotyping for good.

“This practice allows me to explore the complexities of humanity. Every person has a story. Every face archives experiences that are psychologically and emotionally embedded.”

Can you talk about the artist community in Nigeria? The connection and the support between young artists. 
— I belong to a brotherhood of artists called The Kolony. It is a fraternity of young hardworking Nigerian artists dedicated to pushing each other’s goals and dreams by constantly motivating and supporting each other with every resource or platform we have individually. We are members from different ethnicities, tribes and even religions, but we are connected to each other, female or male as brothers. When personal motivation fails, motivation from the brotherhood never fails. It is a blessing to know that as an artist, you have a support system that is unbiased and non-pretentious. I am also proud that almost all the artists participating in this show are members of The Kolony. It is proof that we are moving proud and collectively towards a common goal of pushing a cultural revolution and putting Nigerian contemporary art in a global conversation. 

What are your hopes for the future of Nigerian art?
— My biggest hope for Nigerian artists is to see them awarded with the respects and accolades for all of the hard work and passion they dedicate to their crafts. Nigerian artists are undoubtedly the most hardworking artists in the world and I hope we get included in global conversations on the same pedestal with artists from other parts of the world without stereotyping, prejudice and disrespect. I also hope that we get to have more museums, foundations and institutions that can support Nigerian artists. I am always highly inspired by the goal driven passion and work drive in young Nigerian artists and I hope that one day, I can support the culture and build programs and residencies that can keep the passion of the future young Nigerian artists burning. 

Are there any other Nigerian contemporary artists that inspire you and you think are worth looking out for?
— There are a lot of them! Asides those already in this exhibition; Anthony Ugbo, Kolawole Olawale, Taiwo Adebayo, Julius Agbaje, Wahab Saheed, Anne Adams the Clay Bender, Enoch Chinweuba and the list goes on and on. 

Instagram: @chi_fada

Born in 2000 in Lagos, Nigeria
Based in Owerri, Nigeria

Exhibitions: (2020) Black Voices Friend of my Mind, Black Voices US Edition curated by Destinee Ross-Suttons. Ross Suttons Gallery, New York. (2020) Young Contemporaries Bootcamp Exhibition, Rele Gallery, Lagos. (2019) Acquire Signature and SOGAL, Signature Galleries, Lagos. (2019) Revisiting Pan Africanism, Kan Festival, Urusha, Tanzania, (2019) Resilience, Ministry of Arts and Culture, National Gallery of Arts, Enugu, Nigeria (2018) Art In my City Festival, I Can Draw Africa in collaboration with British Council and House 33 Gallery, Abuja, Nigeria.