Olubukola Bolarinde is the CEO of Yellow Dot Limited, a leading creative curation/production company. The trained architect and self-taught artist is riding on the success of her many creative outputs, especially ‘Onidiri’, Bolarinde’s critically acclaimed film, which was released in 2018, to engage the creative world with her first solo exhibition tagged 106 Expressions this June.
In this interview, she speaks with Obinna Emelike on the first-of-its-kind exhibition in Nigeria, her art, passion and life. Excerpt.
Can you tell us about your background?
My name is Olubukola Bolarinde. I am a self-taught artist. I was born and bred in Lagos, but in my formative years, at age 11, after my primary school in Lagos, I went to school in Jos, for six years, from Jos to Kaduna, and Zaria. I speak Hausa and Yoruba languages.
From the north, I went to the UK where I studied Architecture for my first degree and a second degree in Environmental Design and Engineering at Barclay School of Architecture at University College London.
I came back to Nigeria to start in-practice as an architect with a firm called James Cubit Architects in Lagos for about four years. While I was at James Cubit Architects, I was seconded to Standard Chartered Bank. So, that started my foray into the banking industry and understanding of the full work of the bank. I worked there as a project manager, setting up branches from start to finish, designing for the bank in Lagos, Port Harcourt and at a time, Abuja.
My background in architecture informed my decisions, my precision and my ability to deploy my responsibilities as a project manager.
So that helped, I learnt a lot on that job, my skills in project management, construction manager, and cost management, I took all of that and forayed into the project management field. I did not go into full-time architecture practice but in the oil and gas industry.
I was employed by Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited, a leader in the downstream sector at that time. The owner of Zenon was looking to diversify all the earnings into real estate and that was where I came in first as a property manager. The portfolio grew significantly and it had to be created into a full-fledged subsidiary called FO Properties Limited and I was appointed managing director of that company.
Why did you entitle the exhibition ‘106 Expression’, are you going to display up to that number at the show?
If you check the date of the event, it is June 10th, which is 106. My birthday is very significant to me and I have always celebrated it. People close to me know that I don’t joke with my birthday; I try not to work on my birthday. I take the day off because it is time for me to reflect, to enjoy the day and thank God for seeing another milestone. So, it is a day that I celebrate its entirety from the start to the end of that day. So, 106 is a significant number that jumped out on me.
Again, yes, you will have 106 exhibits at the exhibition. There will be 85 pieces of visual artworks with different media; oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas, which will be exhibited in conventional style. I thought about diversifying my art and not putting myself in a box.
Also, being creative, anyway I can look, to break the barriers of convention is what I am looking for because art should transcend beyond putting it on a medium, hanging it up and letting people come and observe it like conventional style.
Who are you targeting at the exhibition?
My target audience is the fashion industry. So, that is why I am spinning my art into original exclusive fabric.
I could eventually have fashion designers, and big fashion houses approach me and want exclusive fabric specifically for them such that if you see any garment in this fabric, it is easily recognizable as Lanre Da Silva Ajayi because it was a collection by her and it was original art, which is trademarked by myself and can not be produced anywhere else.
I am partnering with two fashion designers for 10 pieces each, two collections with two distinct pieces of my art.
So, we are going to have a fashion segment at the event where they will showcase two collections each with 10 pieces going down the runway.
So, those 10 each, added to the 85 makes it 105. But the 106th exhibition is the event itself, which I have curated from start to finish. It is an event like no other; an event that has not happened before in Nigeria.
Who is the curator and where are you going to host the exhibition?
The exhibition has two co-curators; Nike Okundaye, founder of Nike Art Gallery and myself. For the venue, it will be held at Eko Atlantic, Lagos. Well, my natural habitat as an architect is the construction site, so the venue is an uncompleted building.
For the first time, I am staging an exhibition in such a venue and I am building it from scratch. It is the first-of-its-kind in Nigeria to host such a show in a construction site; in an uncompleted building and I am bringing people and immersing them into an experience that elsewhere did not exist.
So, that immersive experience, walking from start to finish at Eko Atlantic is the 106th exhibit.
Like most exhibitions, do you have a central theme?
I have leveraged every aspect of myself, being an architect. It was very easy for me to design exactly what I want. So, the exhibition space is a maze; you come into the exhibition through one direction, whether you love art or not, whether you like me or not, whether you are a collector or not, you will behold that art. All eyes will see it; you will walk through a maze that is a zigzag before you exit at the other end.
So, that is already conditioning direction and it is taking people through a process; you come in one way and walk through a maze that you cannot exit from until you get to the end of that maze and then we transition into a proper theatre-style formal seating area where the fashion pieces, which will be the next stage of exhibiting to people, now comes in. So, it is like a loop, you go round and exit at the end. So, that is the central theme.
As a storyteller, what kind of story are you going to tell at the exhibition?
I will tell distinct stories. My art pieces will transport you to places, to time and also people and culture.
So, you will see a lot of African faces, people in African attires, for instance a lady in Jalabiya, all wrapped up and immediately it distinct with the north, you will see a man from the Durbar on a horse, immediately transport you there, you will see the Eyo with the kings, they are in the south.
But the one that really jumps out at me is Wusasa. Zaria is predominately a Muslim city and in those days when we were there, we were told never to walk into Zaria city without covering your hair. It is forbidden, you can’t walk in with trousers as a woman, we were always fascinated by that and beyond the walls of Zaria city is the Emir’s Palace.
But outside of Zaria city you have Christian communities and there is a town called Wusasa, it is part of the places where I grew up. In Wusasa, there is this central building that is very synonymous. If I show you the picture or artwork of the Christ Church Cathedral, and ask where this place is, many will say it is in CMS in Lagos, they don’t even talk about the name of the church.
Wusasa is a Christian community, and in the centre of Wusasa is this mud building that looks like an ancient castle, but it is a church called St. Bartholomew. You know Kaduna has a long history of religious crises resulting in killings and very gory situations and there was one of such crises when all the churches were set ablaze and St. Bartholomew was also set ablaze but the building never burnt down; it is still standing till today and it is at the central piece of my exhibition.
So, I did a tribute to St. Bartholomew. I almost even molded St. Bartholomew to show the rustic nature. I brought the roughness and texture that you can almost feel, touch it and you are there. It tells you that story and transports you to Wusasa.
What are some of the works to see at the exhibition?
Magaji, Makoko at night, beach scenes in Lagos, Eyo, Durbar, Christ Church Cathedral, Wusasa, Zaria, among others.
How long did it take to finish the work?
I have been working on this collection for two years. The earliest piece is from 2020, some are from 2021 and some were created this year. Also, the covid-19 pandemic period inspired some of the works because it was a very reflective time for me and also had more time because a lot of people worked remotely and my office allowed that.
Every one of your creative works is being presented under Yellow Dot Limited. What is the organisation all about?
I am a self-taught artist with no formal training in art. I went to school and studied Architecture and I have been working since then with no time to go to art school. So, it is part of the reasons I am convinced that every human has an innate talent that he must tap into and be given a platform to showcase their talents.
That is part of the reason I started Yellow Dot Limited. If I take my mind back to ancient days, you have people like Beethoven and Mozart, people that composed what our minds cannot comprehend in 1536; which music school did he go to, none. But these things came out of them, how can you explain that?
I have traveled the whole of northern Italy and as a student of architecture, I have to go visit all of these cathedrals that were built before the technology era, how did they conceived them before they were built? Of course, they did not go to any school.
The artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Raffaello were all great talents and they did not go to any school. The Sistine Chapel that somebody painted onto a ceiling in the Vatican, how did he do that?
How long will the show last?
The opening event, which is the main event, is for the long evening starting from 6pm on Friday June 10, 2022 and the exhibition will run for two days after so that people can come and see the works, especially the Maze which will stay till the end.
We will open it formally that day from 6pm and it will run till 8pm and then you have the fashion event that will run from 8pm, that is an hour before you host an after party where we will host all the guests.
The exhibition will run so that people will have time to see everything, indicate interest, ask questions, and engage for about two hours between 6 and 8 pm.
After the shows, the exhibition will continue on our website where we will put the catalogue online, for accessibility. Also I have a lot of galleries that are our friends like Nike Art Gallery and The Art Café. They will be at the exhibition and they can decide to put some of the pieces in their galleries so that people can see them after the exhibition. But that will be announced later because I have an exhibition coming up at the end of October in Venice, Italy.
Is this your first exhibition?
No, but it is my first solo exhibition. I have shown my works in galleries like Nike Art Gallery when I first started in 2012.
What is your artistic style?
First, I have ideas: I am always thinking of ideas, which can pop up by what I see, it could be visual, it could be a memory. I realized that most times when I look at my pieces most of them stem from a memory and a memory leads to a story. So, what aspect of that story do I then tell, you may not tell the entire story but there is an aspect of it that jumps at you the most and you want to highlight that.
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I also do a lot of research, I read up things to understand the full story or things better, I decide what point of it I want to heighten, then I go to my canvas. I always start with a blank canvas and then I sketch because I love to sketch. Some of my artist friends tell me that my sketch is too detailed and I need not waste that much time sketching.
Some people don’t sketch, they go straight to painting, but my process is that I must sketch. Every single art of mine starts with a sketch, like St. Bartholomew, I sketched before painting and then I chose colour, how I want to play on emulsion, depiction and the medium and then I start with my palate knife or brushes.
Do you have a favourite medium?
It is tough to say. My biggest strength, which you will not see at the exhibition, is my control of pencil on paper. That is how I started, drawing even through architecture school. But now it is acrylic on canvas because you make quick decisions with it, oil painting takes a much longer period to let it dry and the processes are longer. So, I love acrylics on canvas. That is what I do now.
For my biggest inspiration in terms of artist, I am mostly moved by the expressionist period. People confuse modern art with contemporary art. In modern art there is a break from the tradition from the norm and people expressing in different ways and different movements were born of the modern era. Now, the new age is contemporary where there is absolute freedom of expression. So, that is where I feel I fit into. As a contemporary artist, you can express yourself in whatever medium, way and means that you require.
How come you have time to tell stories, draw and paint despite your huge paid-work demand?
It is the passion that drives you. Have you ever been consumed by something so much that you can’t even sleep, you go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, if you don’t unleash that thing, it will trouble you until you do it. That is exactly what is happening.
My employers are aware, my former employer, Mr, Femi Otedola, when I told him I have this exhibition, he was like you still paint and I was shocked when I heard that, which means at some point we would have had that conversation.
