Chike Obeagu Awareness Post

Chike Obeagu was born in 1975 in Nigeria. He has achieved both a Bachelor of Art degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree, and is even working towards a PhD. His work often criticizes social, cultural, and political changes, some of which interact with the effects of colonialism that we have been studying in global studies. He is also a writer and curator, but is most known for his large and expressive mixed media collages. Obeagu has received several awards and is very active in exhibits, residencies, and workshops worldwide.

Chike Obeagu, National Cake, 2009, mixed media on paper, 62 x 75 cm

I love this piece by Obeagu. The combination of multiple medias and textures come together for such an interesting piece. Here you can see his iconic faces that he uses in most of his pieces, where he stitches cut out features together. I like the amount of interpretations that can be made. The piece depicts women surrounding one woman who has a bowl of gold, hungry with utensils in hand. I see it as everyone is hungry for gold and wealth. You can take it further though. The people are all women and all present rather wealthy, from rings and necklaces to fine fabrics. You could interpret this as no one being full from money, and always being hungry for more. You could even interpret this along this lines of beauty standards, where everyone wants these desired features despite already being beautiful themselves. I love how you can interpret his pieces so many ways.

“Life for me is inherently dualistic and consists of two fundamental principles that complement, contradict and elucidate. My work explores ideas embedded in dualism using social, political and cultural narratives that are laced with metaphors.

While I explore with a variety of materials and processes, my current practice is focused on the use of photo-collage for its suppleness that helps me deconstruct and reconstruct notions that mirror the realities of life.”

- Chike Obeagu