The Master and the Prodigy: exhibition review
in commemoration of Autism Awareness Month
The event was for 5 pm unfortunately I arrived late and jolted out of the uber with the hopes that I haven’t missed much. Graciously, the event commenced an hour late but kicked off immediately. I loved that it didn’t have the usual salutations we often have at such gatherings, I dare to say we all had to respect the time of an elder statesman and that, we did.
The event was filled with a myriad of older folks who were either privileged students of Prof Bruce or people like me, who before mid-life happened to us, heard of Bruce Onobrakpeya while being forced to memorise his name at junior secondary school studying fine arts. Bruce Onobrakpeya would have been what students in my era would describe as ‘’ancient’’ because to us, you had to be a greyed sage to be and/or write in a textbook. It didn’t seem normal for someone that creative to be alive in 2022 but here I am 2 decades later, looking at this same man in the flesh. Meeting with the Professor showed me an aspect of life, I saw what being your authentic self looks like in old age.
Kanye Tagbo-Okeke, my first encounter with and of him was in my last role as a producer. I remember my team and I were on the lookout for Children with special needs doing excellent work and his name popped up. I remember having filmed him at his residence while watching his parents support him with kindness. My heart danced on the thought that Kanye, as a lad, in a chaotic system against children on the spectrum has agency and is not held back by fear to use it. At the event, he explored his agency yet again when he was asked to seat with Professor Bruce Onabrakpeya for photo ops and 5minutes into the photos, he dashed out off the stage. No one dared to pull him back. Not many able-bodied children get to express that agency.
Kanye’s privileges cannot be overlooked however, one thing privilege could not give is a supportive and kind environment of people who genuinely appreciate his artistic style. I often wondered how his art has been excluded from the usual criticisms of art connoisseurs and aficionados. Kanye’s painting is an enigma yet sui generis everyone needs to experience. Kanye, though on the spectrum leaves you with a moment to pause time and critically think of what you see and how it should resonate with you as an individual, one of my favourite paintings is titled: faces. His canvas had emoji-like faces of joy, sadness, laughter and stoicism. It was a nudge to how we all carry these emotions daily and depending on the situation or individual we face, we all pull out the respective emotion for the moment. Another person viewed it as the humans in his head.
Albeit, a fan of Kanye’s journey into the art, it often leaves me with questions :
How can other kids on the spectrum explore their art/creative side without the privilege Kanye has?
Are art/creative schools fully equipped to support children with disabilities?
As we move into the decade of the creative economy, are the current policies in creative culture inclusive of the disabled community. At the time of writing this article, the AU Plan of Action on Creative Cultural Industries did not have a feasible plan for creatives and cultural entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Are there spaces in Nigeria like the Shape Arts UK providing access to creative culture programs for various disability clusters, promoting creatives and artists with disabilities and in turn opening the arts, creative and cultural industries to wider inclusion, through training and participatory arts and development programmes?
Could we move from a less marginalised creative economy to more transformative potential of involvement in favour of social inclusion?
