Eyes on You
2015 492 views
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Details
- Category
- Mixed media
- Dimensions
- 27 × 36 in
- Year
- 2015
- Edition
- Unique piece
- Framed
- No
- Signed
- Yes
In this piece I tried to talk about role models. The people at the top above the eyes are like children, standing behind you, watching everything you do. They have your eyes on you, and they see what you have your eyes on. Whatever you do, they take as a lesson. In Nigeria, this especially applies to people in power. In high positions. You are “successful.” Children are looking at what you have your eyes on. On the right side of the work are cowrie shells. These used to be used as currency in Nigeria, before paper money. People in power usually have their eyes on the money. Every child wants to be like the people they see in power. But they example that they are setting is to just focus on getting money. We are all role models. Everything we do influences the people who are looking up to us. It can determine what they become tomorrow. Simply, we have responsibility to live good lives to save them from bad lives. Shi ke nan (that is all).
Many peacebuilding and development professionals work from their offices for governments or NGOs. Emerging artist Luka Chohu (also known as Lucho) works out of his own small compound in the community of Angwan Juma’a, Jos, Nigeria. This is a place where people “hustle” from morning till night to provide for their families – a place where art is generally not encouraged as a viable career path. To be sure, this artist does his fair share of hustling. But in between, he finds time to stretch old sheets over hand-made wooden frames to engage in his own form of peacebuilding and development work. From his small studio, Lucho fuses his artistic talent with his passion for social justice, to communicate the joys and challenges of everyday life in Nigeria; promote peaceful coexistence; and develop the capacities of those around him. His interest in art began in secondary school: “I always had a story to tell. But because I was not good with words or numbers, there was no way for me to tell it.” He therefore began using paint to express his own experiences and feelings. Following secondary school, Lucho moved to the capital to understudy Abuja-based artist, Kelvin Ubani. He then began using his new skills to move his art into broader themes of social justice, inter-identity peacebuilding and the beauty of Nigerian cultures. The purpose of Lucho’s work is twofold. First, using various media, his own art beautifully and honestly presents the paradoxes, joys and challenges of everyday life in Nigeria. It acts as means for himself and others to step back from the daily “hustle,” make sense of what is, and imagine what could be. In the end, what is produced are pieces with both aesthetic value and the ability to communicate such realities to both local and international audiences. Second, Lucho dreams of also using his talent to increase the creative and communicative capacities of others, particularly children in Jos who cannot access proper education, either because of displacement or poverty. Through volunteer work with local NGOs and schools, he has begun gaining experience in this area creating programs for internally displaced and local children learn how to use art to express and value themselves. Truly, Lucho lives as an artist, a development worker, and a peacebuilder.
