Moving In The Bluish Light
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Moving in the Bluish Light
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Art/Culture
Words By: Luc Hinson
Photography: Von Goetz Gallery, 2018, Moving in the Bluish Light, Installation view, Sola Olulode
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Brixton based figurative painter Sola Olulode graduated in the summer of 2018, within less than six months of graduating Sola had her own solo exhibition ‘Moving In The Bluish Light’ at the Post_Institute in Brixton.
We caught up with Sola and reflected on 2018. Sola guided us through her year, her influences and the message behind her work. Sola’s art is primarily a celebration of Black Women, Black Femmes and non-binary people, whilst also paying a subtle homage to her Nigerian roots. The striking blue seen across her work pays tribute to the Yoruba Dying process of ‘Adire’. What kept coming up in our discussion was identity, Sola, through her work is exploring her own identity, she’s discovering more about her heritage, and her work is an overt expression of identity.
Moving in the Bluish Light, is a celebration of movement, of dance, of relationships and love. You can check out more of Sola’s work by following the links below, and our full interview follows.
https://www.vongoetzart.com/moving-in-the-bluish-light https://www.artrabbit.com/people/sola-olulode/artist
BB: How did you find hosting your first solo exhibition?
SO: it’s quite overwhelming at first, quite exciting really. I had only just graduated, and a year ago I'd never imagined I'd have a solo show within the first few months of graduating. A great way to start my career I guess. Then grad shows were over and I just got really stuck in to preparing a new body of work for the show, which was very intense for a few weeks. A lot of the work from my graduate show had been sold so I needed to create a new body of work, which meant a lot of late nights. I had to lock myself away in the studio, but when it was all done it was very rewarding and overwhelming - seeing so many people turn up to see my work was really cool. That kind of built up and then over the last month I've had a little rest. Since graduating I've been busy, I had a lot of graduate opportunities and shows happening here in the London, it's just been so busy since I moved back home.
BB: How did it compare doing graduate shows and then having the opportunity to curate your own show?
SO: I guess it was nice to think of my work as an entire body. I had made the indigo series prior and even when I was displaying it for my degree show I had my own section of a room. So it was weird to think of an entire gallery space just devoted to my work, and not having to balance off of other people’s work. Thinking of its holding its own space and just being enough I guess.
BB: being the sole thing that people were coming to see…
SO: Yeah! That’s why when I had a preview of the room it was really rewarding thinking that people would want to come and see my work, other art peers, but more importantly friends. I really enjoy seeing people pick their favourite piece. It was cool to see what people responded to the most, to see if there was a common theme that people were picking out.
BB: Can you tell us a bit about the narrative behind moving in the bluish light?
SO: It was a continuation of the series I had started during the end of my degree, where i was mimicking this indigo textile that’s traditionally produced by Yoruba women in Nigeria. I had been working with a lot of dark blues and looking into Nigerian art forms, it was brought to life from that. I was experimenting with the whole textile thing. art forms and different textiles. The narrative I guess, is that my work is always about black women, black femmes and non binary people, I was currently interested by nightlife and dancing. I’ve always been a figurative painter and inspired by movement and capturing the body and movement people, so this was kind of me just pulling this all together to create this series and having the solo show was a good way to wrap up the series, I've been working with that for about a year now, and it's a nice way to round that off i'm happy and pleased with how its gone.
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"I think being black in general as a human being is quite conflicting, as there are so many different ways to express Blackness"
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BB: Your work discusses with Black British Girlhood, do you think there is any conflict between being Black and being British?
SO: I feel like its integral to my identity, being British, and I just so happen to be black. I feel like because my family background is Nigerian, due to colonisation Britishness is integral to being a Nigerian person living in the UK. I feel like it's part of history, it's not necessarily conflicting for me.
I think being black in general as a human being is quite conflicting, as there are so many different ways to express Blackness. Black Britishness itself, is not that well documented, even on TV. Me and my mum were watching some documentary about Black film on the BBC, and nearly every film was American. Sometimes I find it hard to see my Blackness as British because Blackness is so Americanised here. In the wider media that is the only representation of Blackness you see.
I feel like what’s coming through in my artwork now is an exploration of my own identity, I’m learning more about Nigeria and learning more about my culture and their practices. I think compared to previous generations of family members that came over from Nigeria, or wherever, we don't prioritise assimilation as much, because you know we're born here.
BB: I do feel like it’s the second or third generation of migrants that seem to become so much more curious about their heritage and where they come from.
SO: I wonder why that is, I feel like it's not as important to my parents generation, maybe it's part of being othered in society. Maybe, our parents were used to that feeling but for us growing up with very British parents regardless of skin colour. But we were born here and still don’t feel British, we still get othered.
BB: I know my mum when she came to this country encountered quite a bit of overt racism that we see less and less, so I think they adopt a kind of stiff upper lip towards racism.
SO: Yeah I feel like that’s true of our parents experiences of racism, maybe that’s why they don't want to explore that side of themselves because they don't want to feel different. To an extent, they just convinced themselves that they were part of this society.
BB: Is your identity something that’s consciously reflected within your work?
SO: Yes, Consciously and unconsciously. I feel like it started off unconsciously, I was just painting Black people because I am Black and I was painting the people around me. Then, I guess because my art is so personal to me I wanted to have aspects of my identity woven into my artworks. It comes from my own personal interest and research with art. I'm interested in finding out more about myself and my identity, and that just kind of gets placed in the artwork. I couldn't make artwork about another person's experiences so that's why my identity is all over my paintings.
BB: Who and what are the biggest influences upon your work?
SO: I guess people, Black women are probably the biggest influencs. So just the various women in my life. A lot of my work is about relationships, my relationship with my mother, or my friends or my partner that kind of comes into my artwork because it's about the different relationships I see in my life. Also I guess popular culture, I find that the internet and the movements that are started on the internet feed into my work as well, even just the latest dance craze will feed into it.
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"I couldn't make artwork about another person's experiences so that's why my identity is all over my paintings."
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BB: What do you want viewers of your art to come away with?
SO: It depends who is looking at it. If it's black people I want them to see themselves in the artwork. It brings me the biggest joy when I see someone look at my art and say “that's me, thats me on the dancefloor” I enjoy imagining that. I feel like growing up and going to art school and going to galleries in London you don't see enough Black people reflected in institutions and exhibitions. For me, I enjoy putting on exhibitions where Black people can see themselves reflected.
But also so non-Black people can also recognise that black stories and narratives exist, and that there are varied ways of portraying black people. I hope non-black people see that and are more aware of the Black experience because I feel like it's hidden away from them and not shown in wider society.
BB: How do you think we can improve the visibility of Black narratives in broader society?
SO: I think it just comes through institutions and organisations. It's not just about black art being made my black artists, there’s hundreds, thousands probably millions of us all creating this artwork. That’s not what there is a lack of, it's the people in the positions of power who get to pick what gets shown in an exhibition all come from the same demographic, they’re CIS old white men. It’s about getting people in those positions from more diverse backgrounds, and then more diverse art and narratives will be shown.
I feel like at education level its important too, even if there had been one person of colour on the teaching staff at my university it would have been a much, much different experience overall. I don't feel like there was any addressing of race in my degree. I think there was one lecture on Chinese art, from one old white guy- I didn’t go to it, because I don't want to learn about chinese art from someone whos not chinese. I don't care how much of an expert they are. Sometimes I even applaud universities for trying to teach about race, even if they haven't got the staff. My experience was just so devoid, I had to do all the research myself.
BB: Yeah education is definitely somewhere it has to start...
SO: I think yeah definitely at school and also at home, that's the way it has to start. When I was younger my parents used to take me to exhibitions, so maybe if there were more exhibitions where parents could take their kids, that were more diverse that would be a start. But in general, I feel like I would have had a much better university experience if I had just had the teaching staff who could and would talk about race.
BB: What does Britishness mean to you in the 21st Century?
SO: Colonisation, pain. I don’t really feel proud to be British, it doesn't fill me with a sense of pride or nationalism. I feel like britain is quite a shameful country so I have those negative connotations when I first think about it. The only time when i’m like Yeah im British is when I hear an American accent... Like yeah no, British people, we speak the correct way.
BB: What’s was your home life like growing up, does it feed into your life and art?
SO: I’d say my parents were quite lefty. My mum is a big supporter of the labour party and my dad is quite... Marxist - my middle name is Rosa, after Rosa Luxemburg. So I feel like I had quite liberal, open parents. I didn’t really feel like I had to hide much from my parents, they're quite open people, so in that way I guess I was quite lucky. That comes through in the people i'm attracted to, I can't associate myself with people who aren't interested in politics and who don’t care about the things that affect us.
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BB: What is the first thing that pops into your head when i say home?
SO: Home, Brixton, just living in south london and the multiculturalism that’s kind of surrounding that. When I was at university and I'd come home, there were so many little things I loved. Even just coming home and sitting on the bus and being surrounded by so many different cultures, hearing people speak different languages, seeing people dressing in different cultural ways. I appreciated this so much more when I'd been away from it.
Growing up around diversity you just accept it as a norm. When I lived outside of London, it was quite a shock to me, not being able to see people that looked like me, just seeing one type of person, one culture. That was something I would really appreciate coming home, sitting on the bus, or coming out of the underground station. Immediately you see it, see the business of it all and see this harmony of cultures in front of me.
BB: What have you got in store for 2019?
SO: What have I got in store… I feel like I just want to really focus on my practice, and now is the best time for that. I don't have to work to any deadlines, or to the approval of tutors. My work is really down to me now. I guess it's getting the grind and now that I'm self employed I’m just solely focusing on the painting. I just wanna go wild and paint and experiment as much as possible and push my practice and see what comes out of it. Whilst i’ve got this residency as well - at Lewisham Arts House - I've got this free studio until October. I've got to take advantage of not having to pay for studio space, and work to larger scale and experiment with new colours and techniques, and maybe move away from that blue..
BB: It’s a great blue though…
SO: It is isn't it? I really love it, and because I want to go to Nigeria I want to go to those dye pits and actually use that dye and learn about the process. Maybe not a goal for this year, as I want to go travelling next year. I feel like that has to be top of my list if i get to go there.. And then maybe the blue will make a re-appearance.
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Peace.
Instagram: @Solaolulode
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