Feminine realities in the eyes of Mabel

Welcoming guests into the arena is a piece ‘Rustic Beauty’ done in smoked plywood expressing the fact that in spite of the roughness a woman goes through, she still radiates beauty. The piece leads to other works articulating the different sides to the life of a woman. The artist, Mabel Chukwu approaches her subjects with […]

Welcoming guests into the arena is a piece ‘Rustic Beauty’ done in smoked plywood expressing the fact that in spite of the roughness a woman goes through, she still radiates beauty. The piece leads to other works articulating the different sides to the life of a woman.

The artist, Mabel Chukwu approaches her subjects with the combined use of three dimensional figures, mixed media, abstractness, lines, geometry and colours.

For the visual art lecturer of the Federal Capital Territory College of Education, Zuba, seeking women equality is not the focus in this maiden solo exhibition. But an attempt to express the emotions, labour, fragility, beauty, pride, aspirations, strength, and her doggedness even in the face of oppression.

Of her forty-two-works display Chukwu said, “I am simply asking that women be given their due respect, attention and place by their families and the society at large. The woman is a fragile object that is why I have represented some of her characteristics using the egg shell. She is also an embodiment of a lot of components which is represented in whole eggs.

“The egg, as a fragile object is treated with care. It is symbolically used in some of the works to suggest the fragility of the female gender and the need to treat her with love and care.”

With some of the works like ‘She Cares’ are easily interpretable due to the simplicity and straightforwardness of their presentations some others like ‘Strength’ (chalk on plywood), Unu Eme Gbulam ‘Do not Maltreat Me’ (Acrylic on canvass) and ‘Timeless’ (chalk, pastel and coated wire on board) require more attention and in-depth analysis to understand the idea behind the creation.

With  titles like ‘Painful Flow’ and ‘Painful Wriggle’ the artist uses colours and strokes in different dimensions reaffirming that regardless of her pains a woman’s love still flows.

Condemning early marriage, which is the major cause of VVF, she lends her voice on the matter through ‘Cracked Walls’ and ‘VVF’ respectively in vibrant colours depicting the cracks and the burden of suffering from the ailment.

Chairing the event, Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Professor Muhammad I. Junaid, described the artist as multi-talented and prolific going by the number of different mind-blowing paintings she produced during her stint in the private practice and her works which adorn various public and private spaces across Nigeria.

He said the essence of art exhibitions is to learn, admire and acquire them. In this regard, “it is customary for us in the arts to make sure that in an art exhibition such as this, every attendee goes home with at least one art work as a way of encouragement and support for the artist.”

Of the other titles which treated general themes like, ‘Man Must Wack’, a figure of the back view of a man carrying load on his head and water balanced across his shoulders, she said were motivated by “things I see happen in the society. They are the things I feel about humanity in general. Before a man eats, he must toil. The toiling is likened to a piece of wood smoked on fire just to have food on the table.”

Chukwu is a 1998 graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and has participated in group exhibitions across the globe.