11 Early Exponents of Pyrography from The

11 EARLY EXPONENTS OF PYROGRAPHY FROM THE NSUKKA ART SCHOOL Dr. Chijioke Onuora Department of Fine and Applied Arts University of Nigeria, Nsukka Abstract For over thirty years, the Nsukka Art School has championed the production of antique-looking works using fire and heat. Known as pyrography, this technique of sculpture intervention has a modern approach which was pioneered by El Anatsui, a Ghanaian born but Nsukka based sculptor. Since its major outing at the inaugural exhibition of the Aka group of exhibiting artists in 1986, pyrography practice has expanded both in content and styles. This paper attempts to put in proper historical perspective, contributions of other sculptors of the Nsukka Art School who practiced the pyrography sculpture intervention technique between 1986 and 1996. By so doing, it becomes possible to historically and stylistically situate the contributions of such artists to the development of this sculpture production technique within the period under study. Key words: Exponents of Pyrography, Nsukka art school, Sculpture, El Anatsui. Introduction: Nsukka Sculpture Before Anatsui Pyrography as a technique of artistic intervention flourished in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka art scene as a result of El Anatsui’s major efforts in its propagation. Before this creative revolution, there existed two major waves of creative influences on sculpture production in Nsukka Art department, namely the pre civil war and post civil war or Uche Okeke influences. It was the Uche Okeke era, that prepared the ground for the planting and development of what could be called the El Anatsui era. The pre-civil war study of sculpture in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka was fashioned after the academic art traditions of Europe and America. Its curriculum content favoured naturalistic interpretation of forms, using materials and techniques of the Western academy system, and therefore produced artists who, stripped of their traditional art culture, were only able to produce classical western forms that lacked African sculptural energy. Samuel Nwafor, Augustine Agbada, Ugo Anyanwu and C. Ehirim were some of the sculpture graduates of this period. After graduation, not much was heard of these sculptors since they were artistically inactive during the civil war period between 1967 and 1970. Immediately after the civil war, some students and staff who survived the war came back to the art school that had already acquired a new name, the Department of Fine and Applied Arts under Uche Okeke as head of department. Among the few lecturers who returned in 1970 to teach in the department were Mr. E.C. Oluigbo, who took charge of the sculpture, and Mr. Uko Akpaide who was employed later. These lecturers also seem to be products of the old order who maintained the status quo until Uche Okeke’s influence began to take root. It would therefore be correct to say that the foundation of true modern sculpture in the Nsukka art school was laid when Uche Okeke joined the teaching staff of the department in the early 1970s. He did so by putting into practice the ideology of ‘natural syntheses’ of the Zaria Art Society. This “synthesis of old and new, of functional art and art for its own sake” (Jegede, 2002) is the harmonization of Nigeria’s realistic cultural elements with those meaningful ones from the West (Oloidi, 2002) Uche Okeke, after convincing the university administration to allow him draw up a programme that would deeply reflect on African art and culture, established an art programme with a strong theoretical base, and also explored the traditional Igbo Uli cultural idiom in both Fine and Applied art areas. Both the lecturers and the students were drawn to this highly influential man of Nsukka Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2015 12 vision and together, they began to chart a new course in art discourse and practice. Having succeeded in his attempt to carry willing minds along, the process of “freeing the art department from constraints of the past” commenced (Okeke, 2002). Uche Okeke is an embodiment of the creative artist. Although a trained painter, he is also an accomplished creative draughtsman, poet, story teller and scene designer. He also had to his credit great wood sculptures and textiles. His creativity and eclectic qualities soon began to rub off on the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, because he was able contribute positively to every section by emphasizing the importance of African art History, and research on Igbo Arts. Although Uko Akpaide was in charge of sculpture from 1971, his geometric style of shaping forms was seen in very few of his students’ works as against Okeke’s organic approach to sculpture production. Titles were taken from traditional events and ideas and were also influenced by regular researches by students on traditional African art and religion. Wooden forms were monolithic and shaped with adze, axe, chisels and gouges. They were finished with fine chisel marks or improvised abrasives from broken glass and sand papers. During this period, the use of power tools was totally absent among the staff and students of sculpture until El Anatsui, a Ghanaian born artist and art educator joined the emerging art school in 1975. Anatsui was the first of the Nsukka art instructors to introduce the use of power tools in sculpture production. He brought his influence to bear on the working attitudes of his students. This influence was not only felt in the works he produced in clay and terrazzo but most importantly in his use of power tools to shape and decorate wood. Also, pyrography as a shaping and decorating device was not practiced by Nsukka art teachers and students by the time El Anatsui came to Nsukka. It was pioneered by El Anatsui, initated and further explored by his students. Anatsui’s Wooden Plaques and the Introduction Power Tools to Nsukka Artists El Anatsui had produced some circular wooden plates with scorched in designs since 1970, in Ghana, but it took some time before this technique of production was adopted, appropriated and practiced in Nsukka School. Many of these wooden plaques were exhibited in Uche Okeke’s Asele Gallery in 1975 and the Institute of African Studies, the University of Nigeria in 1976 when the Uli linear experiment was beginning to flourish among the teachers and students of the Art Department. After the Nsukka Art school group exhibition in Port-Harcourt, Onitsha and Enugu, a solo exhibition at the British Council, Enugu, all in 1979, Anatsui travelled to the United States of America to become an artist-in-residence. There, in Cummington, Massachusetts, he accidentally became fascinated with the possibility of shaping wood with chain saw, a power tool ordinarily used for felling big trees and cutting them into manageable pieces. According to Anatsui, the idea of exploring the power tool came to him in 1980 when he wanted to log a tree trunk for a composite sculpture. While he was using this temperamental tool, he suddenly discovered how evocative and eloquent the cuts were on wood. From then on, he consciously started to try out its physical possibilities, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as other ways to enhance its performance and results (Anatsui, 1987). The discovery of this tool heralded the second and more forceful period of wood burning experiment by Anatsui in the 1980s. This seemingly dangerous method of making incisions on wood was to be Anatsui’s preoccupation for more than ten years. From 1980, it took another six years before pyrography, as practiced by Anatsui, began to be established as a regular technique of sculpture and indeed, art production among Nsukka artists and beyond. In 1986, Anatsui showed three mixed media burnt wood sculptures at the inaugural Nsukka Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2015 13 exhibition of Aka Group of Exhibiting Artists at French Center, Enugu and Lagos. The three works, entitled Between Asaba and Onitsha (Fig. 1). They made it happen, watched it happen and now wonder what has happened and Untitled were greeted with a lot of excitement and interest by both Enugu and Lagos audience. Back at Nsukka, the euphoria generated by the tremendous success and acceptance of Anatsui’s pyrography stirred in the students the urge to follow the same creative path. Fig. 1: El Anatsui, Between Onitsha and Asaba, Wood, 1986, 150 x 110 © Anatsui. El Anatsui made the transfer of knowledge of this new technique of sculpture production possible by executing some of his works within the departmental sculpture studio, even though he ran a private studio outside the university campus. Some of his students learned some of his pyrography techniques and exhibited pyro-engraved wood panels in their 1986 graduation exhibition. Anatsui and the Next set of Pyrographers One way of measuring the success of El Anatsui’s pyrography sculpture in 1986 exhibition at Enugu and Lagos, was through the amount of interest this sculpture technique generated within Nsukka and among former students of Anatsui who practiced their sculpture outside the university town. For example, while Okey Ikenegbu continued to work in this new technique at Awka where he taught sculpture in a College of Education, Ndidi Dike and Anthony Nwachukwu who graduated from the Art department in 1984 and 1982, respectively, worked in a studio shared by them in Owerri. This collaboration yielded positive ideas for both artists. Anthony Nwachukwu had his solo exhibition in 1986 where he showed, for the first time, burnt wood sculptures, including The Central Bank which he held together with hinges and ropes in order to alter its form while it is still standing. Ndidi Dike mounted her second solo exhibition, Explorations into Nature in June 1987 while Ikenegbu’s maiden solo was opened in July of the same year.

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