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Adejoke Tugbiyele’s much anticipated solo exhibition titled ‘Hybrid Spirit’ launches at The Melrose Gallery, in Johannesburg, on the 15 October and runs until 15 November 2020. The exhibition, curated by Ruzy Rusike, includes several sculptures created from grass brooms, 2 dimensional mixed media works, photography and videos of Adejoke performing in costume. An engaging talks programme has been planned to accompany the exhibition featuring invited guests from the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), curators, academics and activists.
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About the artist
Adejoke TugbiyeleMy work is rooted in ideas of transformation – drawings, mixed media, sculpture and video that evoke the spirit of freedom regardless of one’s identity – race, gender, sexuality, spirituality and class.
Adejoke Tugbiyele was born in 1977 in Brooklyn, NY and moved to Lagos, Nigeria at the age of three. She returned to New York going on to study architecture at the prestigious High School of Art & Design with internships at The Central Park Conservancy and art studies at The Cooper Union (Summer Program) in Manhattan. In 2002, she received a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey School of Architecture (now Hillier College of Art & Design) and a Masters of Fine Art (MFA) in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013.
Tugbiyele describes her practice as ‘hybrid’; reflected in both her approach to making and the physical forms that manifest in many of her works. On one hand, her practice is multidisciplinary; continuously ‘presenting alternative forms of expression that can be universally understood’. Hybridity also makes us more aware of the two-spirit nature of humans and therefore the potential ability to tap into different energies, spontaneously’ Some of Tugbiyele’s crafted objects enter into a performative practice which, she revealed, often operates as a way to ‘queer dominant spaces and narratives pertaining to race, gender and sexuality’. She further suggests: ‘Through performance the body can engage architecture with movement and begin healthy discourse on how space itself affects our psyche and imagination.
In 2019, Tugbiyele was awarded the Grand Prix Leridon of the prestigious Gervanne Leridon Matthias Collection based in Paris, France for her sculpture Ange, produced for BISO2019! – The First International Sculpture Biennale in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, sponsored by The French Institute.
In 2016, The Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant was presented to Tugbiyele for her outstanding record of production and clarity of purpose.
In 2015, Foreign Policy named Tugbiyele one of 100 Leading Global Thinkers and in 2017 invited her to sit on the distinguished panel “Arts & Gender Equity” at CultureSummit 2017 – Abu Dhabi, UAE.
In 2014, Tugbiyele was granted a U.S. Student Fulbright Award to travel to Lagos, Nigeria and conduct art research related to gender and sexuality. While there, she toured the UNESCO World Heritage Site – Oshun Sacred Grove, Oshogbo, Nigeria, contributing to a video she Produced, Directed and Edited, AfroOdyssey IV: 100 Years Later (2014) later featured in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland.
In 2014, Women in The World invited Tugbiyele to Lincoln Center in New York City to sit on a panel with world-renown Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams and LGBTQ Activist Claire Byarugaba.
During graduate studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) – Rinehart School of Sculpture, Tugbiyele received The William M. Phillips ’54 Scholarship for Best Figurative Sculpture in 2013 and The Amalie Rothschild ’34 Rinehart Awards in 2012.
Tugbiyele works in diverse mediums including traditional African brooms, bronze, wire, fabric, wood and LED Lights amongst others to create exquisitely intricate two and three dimensional works which are on occasion integrated into moving performance works. She often weaves elements of photography into her practice - transforming contemporary and historic iconic images into ink drawings or mixed media works, and by engaging in collaborations while critically observing her own gaze in the studio.
Tugbiyele’s works have been mentioned and reviewed in many leading publications and she is regularly invited to contribute as a panelist in dialogues hosted by reputable institutions around the world.
Her works grace important corporate, public and private collections including The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York City; National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City; The Newark Museum, Newark; Daimler Contemporary Berlin, Berlin; Sakhile&Me Art Gallery, Frankfurt; and Credit Suisse Bank, Global
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Artist Motivation
Hybridity frees the mind from the limitations of gender and sexuality, and from the human body in general. It takes us into the spiritual realm, where we can begin to imagine new ways of perceiving and being in the world.
The works in the show HYBRID SPIRIT were produced during a time of intense immersion, personal and artistic challenge to confront the unknown, as well as to push the boundaries of my primary material – traditional African brooms – in exploration of the (human/female/hybrid) figure. They combine to form a new poetic aesthetic, which departs from previous works in their minimalism. They embody a power in their simplicity.
By simplifying, I was able to focus my energy (in Yoruba - ase) towards greater awareness of formal and material possibilities, including scale. Furthermore, I continued to explore performance in costume to understand the visual language(s) my body speaks – hybrid, androgynous and spontaneous gestures with improvisation. By doing so, I could free myself from historical and cultural “othering.” I could become whole unto myself, regardless of identity.
Implicit in hybridity is the notion of queering dominant space or, accepting both sides of the soul which are both masculine and feminine, or neither. I explored this further through movement/performance and via collaboration with Clint Strydom – photography, at Nirox Sculpture Park. As a result, a clear unified message finds a common thread through all my mediums. I challenge audiences to look through and past the physical, manifesting the Spirit and discover their hidden essence – destiny.
Hybridity frees the mind from the limitations of gender and sexuality, and from the human body in general. It takes us into the spiritual realm, where we can begin to imagine new ways of perceiving and being in the world. Hybridity also makes us more aware of the two-spirit nature of humans and therefore the potential to tap into different energies towards successful inner transformation.
By Adejoke Tugbiyele
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Hybrid Spirit
A solo exhibition by Adejoke TugbiyeleThe works in the show HYBRID SPIRIT were produced during a time of intenseimmersion, personal and artistic challenge to confront the unknown, as well as topush the boundaries of my primary material–traditional African brooms–inexploration of the (human/female/hybrid) figure. They combine to form a newpoetic aesthetic, which departs from previous works in their minimalism. They embody a power in their simplicity.
By simplifying, I was able tofocus my energy (in Yoruba-ase) towards greaterawareness of formal and material possibilities, including scale. Furthermore, Icontinued to explore performance in costume to understand the visual language(s)my body speaks–hybrid, androgynous and spontaneous gestures withimprovisation. By doing so, I could free myself from historical and cultural “othering.”I could become whole unto myself, regardless of identity.
Implicit in hybridity is the notion of queering dominant space or, accepting both sidesof the soul which are both masculine and feminine, or neither. I explored this furtherthrough movement/performance and via collaboration with Clint Strydom–photography, at Nirox Sculpture Park. As a result, a clear unified message finds a common thread through all my mediums. I challenge audiences to look through andpastthe physical, manifesting the Spiritand discover their hidden essence–destiny.
Hybridity frees the mind from the limitations of gender and sexuality, and from thehuman bodyin general. It takes us into the spiritual realm, where we can begin toimagine new ways of perceiving and being in the world. Hybridity also makes usmore aware of the two-spirit nature of humans and therefore the potential to tap intodifferent energies towards successfulinnertransformation
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Reclaiming our inner territory
Curatorial Statement by Ruzy RusikeTo an extent, the “Hybrid Spirit” is a merger of realism and fantasy, but similarly it posits itself as occupying the noncommittal position of being neither reality nor fiction.
The artistic instinct tends towards transformation by urging the viewer to turn inwards, infinitely. Adejoke Tugbiyele’s solo exhibition, aptly titled “Hybrid Spirit”, creates a moment of epiphany in which the viewer absorbs Tugbiyele’s drive to defamiliarize the self from societal constructs. Through appreciating the exhibition, we are compelled to discover the “Hybrid Spirit” within us all.
To an extent, the “Hybrid Spirit” is a merger of realism and fantasy, but similarly it posits itself as occupying the noncommittal position of being neither reality nor fiction. Tugbiyele artfully charms, amuses and enchants us, only for us to realise that we have been deftly removed from our sense of self – or rather, the formulated construct that we deem to be ourselves. Through this extraction of the self, we embrace a parallel responsibility in which we bear witness to the exhibition’s beauty in the ordinary, as it mirrors the world as we know it and the world as we could know it. It is exquisite in its horror, captivating in its simplicity. Tugbiyele teases the viewer’s intellect, encouraging us to take the leap and unify logic with creativity, the poetic and the rational.
Tugbiyele’s tight discipline is revealed through the works themselves. Every placement and gesture, every incorporation of varied materials, works in a cumulative effort to produce the exhilarating effect of the exhibition. The indigenous thought of the Yoruba is evoked in each piece, highlighting nature as being both a spiritual and physical phenomena. From this worldview, reality is not partitioned but rather combined into a singular continuum – a spectrum between physical and spiritual realities. Tugbiyele incorporates her material – the palm spines known in Yoruba igbale (reality in its core form) with nature and a church stick, creating a metaphorical amalgamation. This union lends itself towards creating an infinite dialogue of thought. The genre of hybrid discourse considers how the spiritual or supernatural interrupts the secular logic of typical Western epistemology. Through this lens, we see how the “Hybrid Spirit” is both the signifier and the signified.
Adejoke Tugbiyeles’ solo exhibition that is further enhanced by her collaboration with artist Clint Strydom. Strydom captures intellect through images that are both receptive and encourage others to receive. Through this, the dramatic nature of the natural world (human or otherwise), takes the artist’s instinctive gestures and works with them to capture the rare moments of pure inner vision. The images reveal a reality that simultaneously conceals itself.
Art can be understood as the expression of the soul against the limitations of the mind. Because of this, art is often deemed rebellious as it naturally seeks out boundaries against which to throw itself. Tugbiyele intrinsically grasps this notion. As a queer African artist and activist, she knows all too well the nature of pervasive boundaries and is well-versed in facing systems of oppression, armed with her art and mind. In a world that seeks to separate and subjugate, Tugbiyele rejects its efforts, choosing instead to be a “whole unto [her]self”. Composite elements of heteronormative identity, like masculine and feminine are both combined and eliminated. Hybridity seeks freedom from the limitations of false dualities. By absorbing this message, we become boundless with the potential to truly, dynamically transform with purpose.
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Made of grass brooms (Umchayelo), Tugbiyele builds on the legacy of broom-makers whose creative production not only balances the natural environment, but also serves as a means of economic empowerment for black women, their families and communities. Little known to the world is that the broom itself acts as an agent of ‘cleansing’ away of evil spirits in Limpopo – Soweto - movement and sound, the objects are transformed into superpowers which work to negate all prejudices and forms of discrimination such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. It cleanses our space and spirits of negative energy/forces - or ase, in Yoruba. Adejoke explores African Diasporic and Pan-African connections formally and materially - the broom functions poetically reflecting the Yoruba concept of ‘oriki’ – praise poetry – firmly understood culturally & historically as rooted in Yoruba aesthetics. Rowland Abiodun states in his book “Yoruba Art & Language”, “Oriki affirms the identity of almost everything in existence – Oriki extends beyond our traditional categories of two – and three – dimensional acts and color. They include architectural space, dress, music, dance, the performed word, mime, ritual, food and smell, engaging virtually all the senses. More important, oriki energize, prepare, and summon their subject into action.”
Daniel “Stompie” Selibe expresses in his statement “Recycling Sounds” – “I perceive my work as a means of making music with all what I feel around me, and as an avenue of communicating sounds with my deepest self. This process generates a spontaneity and fearlessness of the thrill and excitement of facing the unknown, of exploration and adventure. I believe that in playing, making art is an unending personal quest to find and liberate ones most hidden inner self...”
“When we are dealing with sounds and visions we are in the midst of the sacred self. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We are engaged in a sacred transaction of which we know only a little, the shadow not the shape. We invoke the great creator when we invoke our own creativity and those creative forces have the power to alter lives, fulfil destinies and answer our dreams in our human lives.”
- The live performance Eagle/Bull featured talented artist/musician Daniel "Stompie" Selibe. -
Eagle and Bull
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Work Wife I, II and II, 2019
“Work Wives” suggests just that – women who love women in solidarity, mission and intention. The three figures in this Flow series could be proud Yoruba women standing and pounding yam in harmonic rhythm around a mortar with pestle. Another vision is to see their backs turned away from the cooking objects in defiant opposition of the traditional role of “server” and, waiting to be served.
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Adejoke TugbiyeleAll My Hearts, 2019Grass broom, church sticks, wire, black thread, black paint and resin370 x 190 x 80 cm (Installation)
All My Heart(s) represents a prayer/rosary as well as a call-to-action in a time which increasingly feels like true love requires more...of everything, More patience , More time, More energy , More communication, More silent medication, More mindfulness , More presence, More clarity and solidarity, More heart(s). As we navigate an age of greater emotional distractions and superficiality, this work suggests that love takes will, courage, forgiveness, healing – our expanded hearts.
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Two dimensional Forms
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Adejoke TugbiyeleLove Warrior: Eagle - C002677, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo), Adiré, Ihiya, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil111 x 156 cm$ 15,000.00
Love Warrior: Eagle is a self-portrait of my “animal self” – the inner subconscious desire to ‘fly’ – to serve and protect at higher levels. A characteristic trait I have found consistent towards my own self in the search for deeper awareness, but also towards individuals and communities marginalized due to their identity who are close and dear to my heart. A sense of loyalty and devotion but also, a spiritual calling to Heal. The Eagle blends/lands on a platform/environment almost as a camouflage. While the background sets the stage for free movement, improvisation and winged-dance, the architecture of Somerset House simultaneously invites discourse on the post-colonial vision(s) of Africa. Whereby The West was historically viewed as the “saviour” of the “Dark Continent” – Love Warrior: Eagle suggests that all Africans could look themselves in the mirror and take responsibility to envision brighter futures and a more progressive humanity.
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Love Warrior and Her Shrine Series
“Love Warrior and Her Shrine” stands firmly as a post-colonial commentary on the historical notion that precolonial/ pre-Christian forms of love and reverance – particularly in the African context – are either “backwards” or “demonic” – unnatural and orthodox frames of consciousness that laid the seeds for today’s existing laws which limit the sexual freedom of Africans and black people across the African Diaspora. Furthermore, Love Warrior and Her Shrine adds to discourse on queer black aesthetics dating back as far as ancient Egypt to current day exclamations of black love predominantly found in dance and music. – often serving as a survival mechanism against systems of oppression while affirming and celebrating humanity.
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Adejoke TugbiyeleTravel #10Grass brooms (Umchayelo), Adiré and ink
77 x 56 cm$ 3,000.01 -
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Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #0, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #0, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #2, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #2, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #4, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #4, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #6, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #6, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #8B, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #8B, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #12, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #12Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #13, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #13, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #14, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #14, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #16, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #16, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel # 17Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #17, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #20, 2019Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #20, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel # 21 - C002701Grass brooms (Umchayelo) and adiré
34 x 39 cm -
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Travel #21, 2019Ink, Red "Kentdrige" and pencil
23 x 37 cm
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Moving Imagery
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Musician II, Daimler Art Collection feat Daniel Stompie Selibe & Recycling Sounds
Daimler Contemporary Berlin continues to present/feature Musician II (2014) in the groundbreaking show 31: Women Exhibition Concept After Marcel Duchamp - on-going until February 2021. It's a blessing and deep honour to be grounded in my own culture(s), while knowing that my work can also transcend and be understood/loved universally - as indeed all sacred works do.
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Shifting The Waves
Performed in 2017 at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, as a Special Project of 1:54 London and October Gallery.
Feature image courtesy of October Gallery and Katrina Sorrentino
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An interview Adejoke Tugbiyele
This incredible video of my movement in sculpture/costumes "Eagle & Bull" captures the essence of transformation and transcendence. It depicts the way art can move beyond the canvas, studio and stage - into other aesthetic realms, in this case the Rolls Royce ART CAR at Daytona. Art is further charged with energy (ase) and powerful in how it brings people to the important ideas in the work who otherwise may not have encountered the themes and ideas so critical to our lives. May we continue to find ways to bridge our hearts across boundaries and fly with our brightest light. - Adejoke Tugbiyele, Artist
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A collaboration with photographer Clint Strydom
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About the artist
Clint StrydomClint Strydom is a talented South African photographer, lens-based artist and photo essayist with a profound gift for capturing humanity.
Clint Strydom is a talented South African photographer, lens-based artist and photo essayist with a profound gift for capturing humanity.
His lens-based artistry unravels the hidden perspectives of the overlooked or forgotten in society, resulting in work that is timeless, measured and still.
His self-taught technical flair and experimental signature style has created visual narratives whose timeless profundity permeates political, private and commercial spaces.
In his quest to re-balance historical narratives, Strydom found himself drawn towards one of his defining bodies of work: `Hidden Shadows and Silent Voices of Prison Number 4’.
This collection was captured inside the historic and notorious `Number Four’ prison at Constitution Hill. The series was created to communicate the great injustice and inhumanity of conditions in this infamous prison that was the home to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Robert Sobukwe and Oliver Tambo amongst numerous others.
His experimental signature style has also resulted in collaborations with the likes of Aston Martin International, FIFA, the Mexican Football Hall of Fame and others.
As appreciation for the success accorded him in his career, Strydom elected to invest in other artists of African descent. In 2016, the photographer opened The Melrose Gallery, in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg creating one of the few artist owned galleries in South Africa.
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Clint Strydom took this series of photographs of Adejoke performing in her ‘Bull’ and ‘Eagle’ costumes at Nirox Sculpture Park shortly after her artist residency. The photographs were taken within Moataz Nasreldin’s sculptural installation ‘Sun Boat’ and a glade of trees at Nirox. ‘Nymph’ a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations.
Each photograph is available in the following formats:
C-Type print on Diasec: 150x100cm. Edition of 10.
Fine Art Paper: 90x60cm (Unframed). Edition of 15. -
Clint Strydom, Series 1 – Warrior Spirit
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Series 2 - The Self
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Clint Strydom, Series 3 – Path to Glory
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Clint Strydom, Series 4 – Homage to the Eagle
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CLINT STRYDOM, Series 5 – Nymph
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A collaboration with David Krut Projects
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Woman Dignity (2019)
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Last year, the David Krut Workshop (DKW) collaborated with the Latitudes Art Fair to produce a series of silkscreen prints for the project ' #LatitudesLimited .' Adejoke Tugbiyele was one of the 5 African contemporary artists that was chosen to produce a limited edition silkscreen print. Bold and exploratory in her work, she challenges deeply held complacency and disturbing notions about her own gender and sexual identity in society.
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Talks Programme
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Adejoke Tugbiyele’s ‘Hybrid Spirit’
Inspired by the book Spiritual Warrior: The Art of Spiritual Living by John-Roger
Panel Discussion 1
Topic: Manifesting the Spirit.
By manifesting our Spirit we gain access to our hidden essence - Our destiny. However, when manifestation is only considered in physical terms - in the form of objects - it is not complete. Successful manifestation is only complete if it results in a change in consciousness. -
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Panel Discussion 2 - Thursday 29 October at 18:30 GMT
Topic: Sides of the Soul
Be whole into yourself, rather than attaining your identity by judging yourself against the characteristics of the opposite sex. The Soul is both male and female, or neither. It is part of Divinity - so it is also rocks and trees and ants and snails and water...not in their physical form but in their essence. So getting stuck on male or female is a distraction. -
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THE "HYBRID SPIRIT" SEEKS FREEDOM FROM THE LIMITATIONS OF FALSE DUALITIES. BY ABSORBING THIS MESSAGE, WE BECOME BOUNDLES - Ruzy Rusike
Direct all enquires to craig@themelrosegallery.com
Hybrid Spirit: Adejoke Tugbiyele
Past viewing_room
