Amarachi Okafor is holding a solo exhibition, “The Colour of Our Hearts Is the Colour of Our City”, which opened Saturday, September 11th at the Centre for Contemporary Art, CCA, Lagos. The touring exhibition is people-focused, and affectionately themed, according to a statement announcing the event which will take place until September 25.
“Participatory (with audiences) and performative (by the audience and the artist)”, the statement further said that the “physical sculpture installation tries to activate to the senses, a city setting with pouches in seating as people living in clusters, on streets, within closed and open walls”.
Cities, according to the statement, are made and built by people- all the people in it, not just some.
“Each one of us is a stakeholder and has the ability to affect the overall feel of the city in some capacity or other. The colour of our individual hearts is the colour of the place where we inhabit. Who am I as a person and how am I making my city, community, immediate spaces better or worse because of my presence in it”.
“The Colour of Our Hearts Is the Colour of Our City, 2015-2019” is a relational piece that draws the audience into the work to be part of the piece as it grows with the charge of the audience. My idea with this line of work is also the intent to make audiences consume art by becoming and being part of art, having a stake in the piece, engraving it in their memories through participation and performativity; enlightening as well, audiences that would not ordinarily consume or own art,” the artist stated.
