CREATING SCULPTURAL FORMS INSPIRED BY THE IJELE MASQUERADE

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Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
The cultural identity of African people is gradually dying, scholars likeIkwuemesi (2000) believes that; the influx of western ways of life threatened the continued existence of the foundation of Igbo culture. The situation worsened, given to the fact that most parts of Igbo land were reduced to ruins during the 1967 – 1970 Nigeria-Biafra civil war, they embraced the western way of life, thereby neglecting their precious and priceless cultural practices. This is also evidenced in the gradual dwindling and extinction of the masquerade practices, and has equally become obvious in the so called technological advancement, and unperfected technological growth which has led to many system failures. Some Igbo cultural practices absorbed the Western way of life into its cultural activity in sustenance of her practices like the Ijele masquerade. An Ijele of 1950 differs from that of 2016 because the Ijele?s of 1950 and 2016 represent what is obtainable during their time and technological development. This research created sculptural forms from the Ijele masquerade and also created awareness on masquerade activity especially the Ijele masquerade, even though this cultural activity tried to blend with the modern time, people still see the practice as being fetish. The problem of this study is that visual artists, have not explored the individual forms that make up the Ijele masquerade, and they have not been able to isolate and study these forms, artists have also not carefully considered the philosophical, and artistic perspectives inherent in the Ijele form for sculptural dialogue. The objectives of the study were; to identify and produce sculptural relief elements of the Ijele masquerade, extract various sculptural forms cladded with coloured fabrics inspired by the Ijele masquerade, create female forms from the Ijele masquerade, explore the possibilities of producing female and animal forms as they co-exist within the natural environment, extracted from the Ijele masquerade, create an outdoor installation sculpture, that will be a culmination of all the basic forms extracted from the Ijele masquerade. The research was guided by the theory of Hans-George Gadamer (1900-2002) and the philosophy of the Natural synthesis (the idea of borrowing from traditional elements and concepts to be infused into formal art). The research methodology discusses the various methods explored especially the practice-based research method. Scholars and traditional artists were visited for data collection on the Ijele masquerade, the materials used to actualize the studio exploration and its written components were discussed. The works produced were discussed in line with the objectives of the study, in the context of the Ijele Anambra Igbo philosophy world view, which was guided by the research questions. The findings were discussed in line with the objectives of the study which are that; Ijele masquerade?s upper section is made up of sculptural representations of human daily activity, and the spiritual world, while the lower section comprises of uli signs and symbols. The symbols are philosophies of day to day living of the people. It also contains animal forms like; the Enyi (elephant), Oko-okpa (rooster) Ngwere (lizard), Eke (python), Oji (kolanut), Kpakpando (star) among others, these motifs are significance to the Northern Anambra Igbos. It was observed that the Ijele masquerade is a female masquerade, the head gear seen on the series of Munaonye ga agba egwu (who will dance with me) that emanated from the studio exploration was inspired by the Igbo Isi Nwoji motif. This research created sculptural forms of human beings and animal as they co-existed within the environment, which shows activity of sacrifices, before and after the enactment of the Ijele masquerade performance, a lot of ritual cleansing are done for both the performerand the entire community, and the research also created an outdoor installation sculpture of the Ijele masquerade titled Elegance measuring 6m X 3.4m. The researcher concludes that the Ijele masquerades created by the traditional artists are meant for entertainment and for the Igbo to reaffirm their place in the co-existence between them, the ancestors and the gods. The study has also revealed that, the present-day traditional sculptors are no longer commissioned by villagers and individuals to produce masquerade, primarily because of the advent of Christianity and the introduction of Western cosmetics. The research recommends that, for forms to be derived from Ijele masquerade; the motif (Ije Nwa Ugo, Isi Nwoji, Kpakpando, Akara ndu, Ichi na Mbi ezi) can further be explored by researchers, other materials can be incorporated to aid in deriving sculptural forms, as a medium of expression in studio exploration.