How we walked our ways to victory – NAC winners

 Three young Nigerians artists emerged victorious in the 2016 edition of the National Art Competition, (NAC), organized by the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF). But beyond the thrills of their success stories, they said more should be expected from them. For 42-year-old Godwin Uzoji, being thrown from the corner of a lecture room at the Federal […]

 Three young Nigerians artists emerged victorious in the 2016 edition of the National Art Competition, (NAC), organized by the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF). But beyond the thrills of their success stories, they said more should be expected from them.

For 42-year-old Godwin Uzoji, being thrown from the corner of a lecture room at the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, to become an instant celebrity and a grand prize winner of the 9th edition of National Art Competition (NAC), was arguably the greatest “miracle” of a sojourn in art and creative world.

Uzoji alongside Jumoke Ayinla, the 27-year-old who won the Most Outstanding Concept and Atonye Alfred, the 30-year-old sculptor who emerged winner of the Outstanding Production category, still revel in what each described as “surprise victory.”

Narrating his success story, Uzoji said all he set out to achieve was to act as a vanguard for the plights of Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs), with his work but was surprised to be the one who took the biggest crown. The theme of this year competition was “Shifting Boundaries.” Uzoji said the theme was his first source of inspiration. After seeing the theme, I asked myself “which area of existence: politics, economy or what? I thought of so many things but eventually streamlined my thought to the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),” the 2006 graduate of sculpture from Ahmadu Bello University said.

Uzoji said his resolve to dwell on this unusual terrain became strengthened when he paid a visit to the IDP camp in Abuja. He said contrary to the reports that certain donations were made to the IDPs or certain amount of projects have been executed to ease their agony, the reality he was confronted with was much worrisome than could be imagined.

Working on the piece: “Moving Pieces”, 27-year-old Jumoke, a 2010 graduate of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, said she has an idea, felt she needed to express it and incidentally found NCA, a worthy platform to use.

In winning the Outstanding Concept category, Jumoke said her piece also contain CDs which were strategically used to achieve colour varieties. “This is meant to represent beauty and opportunities. I also used broken glasses. A glass shows you what you are focusing on or what you are looking into. It is not like a mirror that shows you who you are but what you want to focus on,” she said.

For Alfred, coming from an oil producing Bayelsa State, it was an inspiration. Whereas the nation’s economy leans largely on the black gold that spreads across Alfred’s community, the 30-year-old think diversification was the best way out of the current economic quagmire and that was what he captured in his winning entry, titled: “On the second thought.”

Alfred’s work basically focused on the current economic challenges we are facing in the country. He said he went on to use a problem to solve a problem. “What I mean by this is that having discovered that Nigerians do import tyres and tubes, which I considered a problem because it is not good for our economy, I decided to use these discarded items to create an art piece which simply means out of a problem, a solution can be created. I’m simply saying out of the challenges we have, there is a need for us to look inward because there are abundant resources we can focus on but are yet to be tapped into,” Alfred said.

Yet, walking away with victory was really not smooth for the trio. According to the organizers, over 1000 applications were submitted for the competition out of which 12 applicants were shortlisted. Thereafter the 12 were given a month timeline to go and actualize their concepts and get them submitted.

The AAF noted that each edition was driven by pertinent themes in line with current social issues. Now in its ninth year, the Foundation says the competition has showcased emerging talents in such diverse media as painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, installation and video art. It noted that the competition includes cash prizes totaling N4.5 million and provides the artists national and international exposure and exhibition opportunities.