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Be gentle with me | 2024, Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 7.5 x 5cm
Chronicles of Respite, 2024 | Glass, Poetry, Textile
Materials: Vitreous enamel powder, copper metal plates, paraffin wax, fabric dye, canvas, fabric, ink & polyester
Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper): Passages | 2024
Poetry (Sublimation Prints): Slow down | Se jéjé | 2023, Choosing Self | 2023, Reckonings of Joy | 2024
Textile (Batik): Erekere | 2024
Chronicles of Respite positions rest and self-preservation as priorities in life, where joy, playfulness and self-encouragement are reflected as important within resting and being.
The project is explored across glass, poetry and batik, new introductions to Olumide's expansive interdisciplinary practice incorporating an unapologetic variety of media.
Passages | 2024
Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 58.6 x 35.6cm, (20 parts, each 7.5 x 5cm)
Waka Waka, Chaos, Home, Joko, Flow, Aláfíà | Peace, Self-reflection, Be gentle with me, Oneness, Life storms, Stuck, Trickles of money, Navigating, Farabale, Isinmi | Peace, Calm fire, Balance, Joy, Possibilities, Sleep.
Olumide chronicles pockets of rest and peace taken amidst and after burnout through vitreous enamelling productions on copper metal plates, documenting her life passages as kiln-fired abstract visuals and textures of imagery, text and motifs from personal iconography to Yoruba language, nostalgia and free forms. Which depict subjects as exhaustion, stress, peace, self-care, anxiety, hope, stagnancy, escape, reflection, counselling and finally, rest.
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Joy | 2024, Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 7.5 x 5cm
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Frabale | 2024, Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 7.5 x 5cm
Choosing Self (2023), Slow down | Se jéjé (2023), Reckonings of Joy (2024)
Poetry, Sublimation Prints on Polyester fabric
(96 x 66.5cm each)
“Writing is not done in stillness, it is done in movement and living”
Olumide considers her collection of poems honest and vulnerable, not embedded in shame but strength!
1, Choosing Self | 2023, Poetry & Sublimation Print
An unapologetic priority of oneself alongside the intricacies and complexities life offers and that one navigates through.
“It is a love note to take all you are and have been through and unapologetically say, I adore you no matter what! Move! Keep going! Start somewhere! Finish! You’ve got this!.”
2, Slow down | Se jéjé | 2023, Poetry & Sublimation Print
It’s a call to action to rest and be present away from a cycle of self-deterioration. It offers an inner voice that holds one accountable and acts as an elder or counsellor, a sort of ‘tough love’ letter to take care.
“If I had a big Sister, I hope she’d hold me down like this”
‘You need you and we need you, but the need that we need of you can only be needed if you are here to need you. If you are here to fight for you.’
excerpt from poem Slow down | Se jéjé
3, Reckonings of Joy | 2024, Poetry & Sublimation Print
There is reassurance here, pouring from a full cup which gushes out testimonies of knowledge of joy from intimate understandings in personal contexts to the ‘God factor.’ Olumide mediates between humanistic experiences of her Joy between life passages to more physically intangible yet prolific expressions of her Joy found in her Christian faith, which she benefits from as “a constant assurance that all will be well.”
Olumide sees her faith as a bedrock of strength and nurturing, where the world, passages of life, her interactions with others and things in between do not hold fort for her internal joy, which she recognises as the source of being ‘God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ Amen
Mo fowo re sayan
Assurance
Photograph by David Rowan
Erekere | 2024, Batik (Parrafin wax, Fabric dye, Canvas fabric), 113.5 x 94cm (3 parts, each 39 x 41cm)
Erekere (Reckless play) is a 4 piece body of work projecting ‘memory of making in creation’ and the triggering of this being ‘joy’ took Olumide back to her nursery school activities of hand painting, which she fondly associates as one of her earliest artistic expressions.
Here in batik, she imprints her nostalgia in the textile medium, which is new in her practice, though encouraged by her ongoing mixed media project Akọbi (2022- present).
Erekere holds space for childhood joy and merriment.
Joko | 2024, Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 7.5 x 5cm
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Oneness | 2024, Glass (Kiln-Fired Enamel on Copper), 7.5 x 5cm
Chronicles of Respite was commissioned by Multistory in curatorial partnership with The New Art Gallery Walsall for the group exhibition Communion which was held between August and November 2024. Chronicles of Respites Passages and Poetry series was recently exhibited at Radiant, a group exhibition curated by Abigail Fakoya at Copeland Gallery, London in November 2024.
Learn more
Communion Exhibition: https://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/exhibition/communion
Multistory: https://multistory.org.uk/programme/bcn-assembly/
The New Gallery Walsall: https://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/exhibition/communion
Artist Talk: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-conversation-leah-hickey-jamal-lloyd-davis-tomilola-olumide
Radiant Exhibition: https://www.mojunartspace.com/project-exhibitions-radiant
Copeland Gallery London: https://www.copelandpark.com/events/29012/radiant/?t=29029
Special thanks to Multistory, The New Art Gallery Walsall, STEAMhouse, Jessica Piette, Rene Francis-McBrearty, Deborah Robinson, Gregg Dunn and Kevin Storrar for their support through this project.
All Images of Tomilola Olumides' artwork installed on The New Art Gallery of Walsall's Community galleries walls for the Communion exhibition were taken by Photographer David Rowan.
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