AN EXPLORATION OF SHURUWA MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AND DANCE COSTUME IN PAINTING

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Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
This Dissertation is an exploration of Shuruwa musical instruments and dance costumes as an inspiration for painting compositions. The study?s scope is based on the flute (Shuruwa), dance form Madamai village in Kagoro, Kaduna State. The study covers some selected dance costumes and musical instruments ranging from leather belts decorated with cowries, drums (Gbandang Bin &Dadai Bin), Kalangu, bamboo flutes (Shuruwa) and leg rattlers. The conceptual framework of this study is hinged on the derivation of visual imageries that are embedded in the color and shape of the Shuruwadance and art costumes and musical instruments to create paintings, as reflected in Okeke (1982), who observed that new Nigerian artists can draw inspiration from their rich and stylistically varied heritage. Musical instruments have given artists the inspiration to explore, paint and derive different themes from them. An example that characterized Cubism is the identification and the extensive use of musical instruments in painting that formed the basis for the Cubists? constant use of geometrical shapes; the style which the researcher adopted. In Africa and Nigeria, several artists have explored musical instruments and dance costumes in painting from varying cultures and ethnicity. However, Shuruwa musical instruments and dance costumes have not been explored in painting, thus, the need for this research. The researcher studied relevant works that express the aesthetic qualities that are similar to the exploration of musical instruments and of some artists who incorporated musical instruments and dance costumes in their paintings. The research design for this study is practice-based. The sketches and photographs of the selectedShuruwa musical instruments and dance costumes were subjected to studio exploration and analyzed in three stages: that is the representational, transformational and geometric/abstraction stages respectively. These stages were also divided into three (3) themes: Nkiyang song series (musical instrument), Shuruwa blower series (flutist) and the dancer costume series. The study established that Shuruwamusical instruments and costumes (like most African and Nigerian heritage and relics) can be identified and explored for their aesthetic qualities.