With a fusion of art and virtual reality (VR) technology, Aize Mohammed Paul, expresses the realities of life and death in his exhibition; 99 image series on his fourth Imagery and Visual exhibition.
About 59 physical and VR images were exhibited in the two-day private and public exhibition.
Staged at the Alliance Française, Mike Adenuga Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, the audience and viewers were thrilled at Paul’s concepts of using his native Benin dialect and English in expressing his art.
With rooms that illuminate with visuals, lights, installations and artifacts that speak to the every day life of a man, the art works and images expresses every form, reaction, action, omission, feelings, hurts we as humans feel while we are here on earth.
It is part of his series titled, Flares of Enthusiasm, Dash Between, which was started in 2020.
Tagged, Eren Oghe Okhaza – Ekp Oghe ule Obaba (A safe place to find a purpose for your story), Paul said the exhibition is one way to create a sustainable channel for the artist and the market.
He described the ethos of his art as self, a means to navigate one’s life purpose, with a mission to inspire individualism to creatively encourage humanism on a global scale.
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“The exhibition talks about life and death; this means we get to be born and we get to die. It is a life purpose kind of exhibition. This exhibition is a five-part series. This is called 99 images. It’s a dash between life and death. The 99 images expresses every form, reaction, action, omission, feelings, hurts we as humans feel while we are here on earth.
“The 99 images depicts happy, sad, joyful, mothers, playing kids, a wondering boy, amongst others. These all express every stage you go through as a human here on earth,” Paul said.
He said the exhibition is done in a way to enable viewers to navigate through the physical session and after which they go through the virtual session, which is
outside the main gallery.
“We try to create this experience such that people can get a continuation of the feeling inside,” he said.
He disclosed that for artistic purposes, his drive comes from aligning the individuals he captures with a creative process that enables conversation, sustainability and constructive engagement.
“I use both my native Benin dialect and English in expressing my art. My first exhibition was an installation at the 1952 Africa Gallery in Lagos. The next in the series was at my private studio in Lagos. This included a virtual reality experience of my work ranging from archive pieces to the latest.
“Lamu, Kenya 2022, was my third installation; this was at Peponi Hotel, featuring the virtual reality experience and physical prints.
“Shared experiences from the show reaffirmed the people’s self-awareness and life purpose featuring art and a voice-over narrating tales of life and death.
“Integrating the virtual reality experience to a wider audience proves that creative possibilities are limitless while navigating one’s life. This is the third series of the show to complete 99 image series.
He said after the exhibition, there is a functioning website where people can always reach he and his team; adding that sales have been going on for two years now.
“We put in a lot of work here. We appreciate the support from Alliance Francaise.
“Without funds, we really cannot create, we cannot do this. We need funding; government funding and private funding as well. The passion for photography and arts has kept me going. This is my fourth exhibition. My first was in Kenya.
“For this exhibition, we try to create an experience that try to ignite the smell and hearing sounds. When you come in here, you experience something you haven’t experienced before,” Paul said.
