Move By Move

This is going to be an installation room that seeks to illuminate the profound impact of cultural heritage on human behavior by equating and distributing personal dispositions of individuals with facial markings across varied layers of personality traits, thus utilizing the chessboard as a symbolic framework to represent this multifaceted issue.

These different but personal opinions have shaped their identity and how they interact with the world. Each square in the chess board reflects a personality trait or perspective on facial markings. The installation then allows us to distribute these diverse viewpoints across the board, highlighting how individual experiences shape identity and community interaction.

This approach goes beyond physical beauty, rather it exposes us to the deeper connections that bind individuals to their heritage and ancestry.

Immersed in form, experiments, colors and material samples, the space also serves as an archive of our different works of Art as 2D and 3D Sculptures and Reliefs, as they are placed on the walls, floors and table tops.

These sculptures capture the intricate relationship between human identity and cultural expression. Through a study of indigenous facial markings, I aim to explore how these visual cues reflect the diverse stages of our evolutionary journey.

This ongoing installation mimics the concept of a chess game in the bid to provide answers to how an individual’s markings represent a unique story, shaped by their cultural heritage.

Just as each chess piece has a specific movement, each person with facial markings interacts with the world in a way influenced by their cultural identity. The concept of a chessboard serves as a central metaphor. Each square represents a facet of personality shaped by the presence or absence of markings.

These markings represented in each piece are depicted realistically, aided with geometric shapes, motifs, and symbolic community icons unique to specific indigenous communities, becoming the “chess pieces” on the board of identity.

To further establish the visual representation of identity, lineage, and spiritual connection, each individual piece interprets cultural elements through the lens of communal history, by highlighting the shared legacy and unique expressions of beauty and identity between the Benin Kingdom (the significance of the crown symbol in Benin’s bronze castings) and the Yoruba Kingdom (the tradition of tribal/body marks).

From the need to redefine beauty standards in facial markings, there is so much that I have come to learn and discover: beyond the concept of shared aesthetics between the two kingdoms, but also how both cultures used adornment to signify identity, social status, and beauty within their respective communities.

Visual language

Facial markings are depicted realistically alongside geometric shapes, motifs and community icons, drawing on the shared legacy of the Benin Kingdom’s crown symbol and the Yoruba tradition of tribal marks.