‘Why I use pop art on Northern heroes’

What is your latest art project, ‘We Are the North’ all about?  It’s a project I embarked on to show my source of inspiration: the places and people I had seen while growing up in Kano and Kaduna. I observed that art from the northern part of Nigeria is not as popular as I would […]

What is your latest art project, ‘We Are the North’ all about?
 It’s a project I embarked on to show my source of inspiration: the places and people I had seen while growing up in Kano and Kaduna. I observed that art from the northern part of Nigeria is not as popular as I would have expected. And it was very surprising to me, considering the almost countless sources of inspiration that I found in northern culture. It’s a series I created with the intension of showing the heritage of the northern people and immortalizing renowned Nigerians with pop art culture. I have always wanted to mix the indigenous and foreign art as a signature to my design and art.
I felt that history could be told in a different, more modern and interesting way, especially for the Nigerian youths. So I thought of fusing real images of festivals and of renowned Nigerian icons with pop art, illustrations of the day to day you meet on the road. I believe the northern culture is a vibrant one and hasn’t really been shown by artists. Cultural events like the Durbar show how colourful the heritage of the northern people is.

Have you wondered if the application of pop art on works of renowned Nigerians like Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello and others may be termed offensive by some people?
 I have gotten mixed reactions. Banksy said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. I have always wondered what people’s perception of the ‘We are the North’ series would be, but I am under no illusions. Some people will always find your art offensive and some won’t. I have always felt that young Nigerians are not being shown enough of our National heroes. Those people who fought hard for our freedom and independence, they are icons. As an artist, I feel this is my own way of reintroducing these heroes to the younger generation in a way that appeals to them and immortalize these icons that helped build the nation.

You are a graphic designer, illustrator and muralist all rolled into one. What is your story?
I’m from Kaduna State; I studied Industrial Design (Graphics) at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. I previously had been studying Building Engineering before I dropped out to study Industrial Design in my third year in school.
I have been creative since I was a kid, my dad always provided my brothers and I with art materials. I started off drawing comics and cartoon characters. I remember my dad had a lot of vinyl records of Fela, James Brown, Micheal Jackson, Bonny M, and so on. I would pick these up and start drawing the covers. The Fela album covers done by the famous Lemi Gwariokwu really inspired my early creative years.
I became active in art in my secondary school, Federal Government College, Enugu, where I took part in art competitions that I hardly won. But I started making posters with papers and markers for school clubs. I joined the Press Club where we would create cartoons of students’ life in the dormitories. I started computer-based design when I met my friend, Jesi Yakubu, at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 2002. We started designing as a team. Then I dropped out of Building Engineering to start afresh in Industrial Design at the Diploma level. We created a design and merchandise company called GRD, Graphic Research Department, where we made and designed T-shirts, album covers for musicians and other branding services.
Before I graduated I had done an album cover design for a Washington DC-based Nigerian rapper called Kahli Abdu, called ‘The Ministry of Corruption’. This, I would say, is my favourite cover art. Kahli Abdu introduced me to MI Abaga. I got a phone call from MI Abaga one day, out of the blue. It was one of the most shocking moments of my life. MI asked me to come to Lagos and work for him. Three weeks later, we met at the airport in Abuja and flew to Lagos. That was September 2012. I worked on the graphics for his website at the time while he was recording the second installment of his popular mixtape ‘Illegal Music’. I designed the cover for that and also the first ‘Illegal Music’ mixtape, which didn’t have a cover at the time. I subsequently worked as a Graphics Designer and a Creative Director for the label he owned called ‘Loopy Music’ and also some joint projects at Chocolate City. After four years working for him and Loopy music, I decided to go into the corporate world to work for a branding company, after which I decided to be a freelance graphic designer. I found enough time to focus on my related passions: painting murals, graffiti and digital illustrations. I started doing digital illustrations for merchandise companies and branding. After the Hard Rock Cafe commission, more projects started coming in. Painting the graffiti and walls of Hard Rock Café, Lagos surprisingly was my first big graffiti project. Before then I was just painting my friends’ rooms for fun.

Graphic design, illustration and murals: which of these three influences your work the most and why?
I would say the one that influences my work the most is graphic design. The love for graphic design started way before graffiti. Graphic design was my major in school. It’s also a skill I taught myself. I was so passionate and curious about animation and graphic design that I learnt how to use the professional design software before I applied to study it. The skill developed more with the theory and practice I got from school.

What was your very first work?
My first Graphic Design project was a mixtape cover I did for J-town rapper called Juze the AfrophunkMan.’

What do you consider before putting forward a work like what you have on MI’s album covers?
Most times it’s his fans and critics I consider when I embark on a design for him. MI is a perfectionist and very creative so he likes to suggest ideas for the design. Working with him requires a level of perfection and patience. He would play the song or songs for me to listen to in the studio so that I could understand what the message of the song was. After that, the design process starts. I have made a lot of designs that he has turned down. When that happens, we either adjust or just start all over. He is always concerned about each image or design of him that goes out there, which I think is a good quality for a musician or performer to have. You know fans in Nigeria usually judge the music based on the artwork.

Can you elaborate on your experience working on any such album cover?
The experience working on his latest album, ‘The Chairman’ was fantastic. We had the whole work station moved to his house with additional designers and all brainstorming for the perfect design for the project. Working on his ‘King James’ single was quite an interesting one as well. The idea was to make him look like a 3D sculpture, so we had to paint his face white with body paint during a photo shoot and completed the design in post-production. I would usually create a mood board first to show the creative direction for the project. 

What’s your opinion about an artist being a natural-born talent or self-made?
Talent is God-given and inborn and needs to be found at an early stage. Practice perfects it. I believe every one of us is born with a special gift or ability, but need time and effort to develop. It usually requires much more hard work and continuous efforts for proficiency. A skilled artist tends to work more than the talented artist who has the tendency to be lazier than artists who have to develop their skill.

What usually comes to mind before you put up your work anywhere like you did at the Hard Rock Café in Lagos?
Firstly, I think of the impact my artwork would have when a person walks into the space. I try to tell a short story anyone can understand by merely looking at the mural/graffiti art. When I was commissioned to do the graffiti at Hard Rock café, I did some research first on the brand, and then I worked with the architects and engineers handling the project. We discussed the kind of colours to avoid based on the design they had decided for the interior. They wanted graffiti of popular musicians and music legends but still gave me creative freedom. Also what people don’t know is that the murals in the café were hand-painted by me with some assistance from my friend, Andy Abu. 

Do you often approach places you feel you would like to beautify with your art work or do you get asked?
I will love to have my art at certain places, but most of the murals/graffiti I have done are commissioned projects from Hard Rock café, Lagos, Chocolate City (Music video) Cointreau Cognac, MTV Base Africa (Bigger Friday Show), The Traffic Bar, Abuja and so on. I also have a Fela art hanging on the stage of The Fela Shrine in Lagos. Street art isn’t popular in this part of the world yet, but it is gradually beginning to grow. So the demand for it as part of interior design for restaurants, schools, bars, clubs and residences is growing fast in Nigeria.

What do you spend time doing if you aren’t holding a brush or art tool?
I spend time listening to good music, surfing the internet for new inspirations on my phone- I’m really attached to my phone-or watching great movies and hanging out playing video games with friends.