A Nigerian man, Chibuike Ifedilichukwu, went viral days ago when he shared a video of a Peter Obi portrait he made with drink cans. He talked about his passion for art and why he chose the materials he used for the portrait.
Chibuike Ifedilichukwu’s background
The Nigerian artist revealed that he was born in Enugu in 1986 and he is currently based in Anambra state. He got a diploma in 2012 from the Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu. Chibuike has had over 20 art exhibition shows, one of which was the October Rain Art Exhibition, Resilience, Lagos Nigeria 2020.
Why Chibuike used cans for art
Chibuike stated that cans are just some of the many materials he uses as an artist. Two reasons he cited for going for cans are that they do not decay and recycling them takes them away from places where they become environmental hazards.
For the number of cans he used for Peter Obi’s portraits, he said: “30 – 50 cans and 30 days minimum. Some of my art even take year(s) depending on size of piece.”
About the Peter Obi portrait
The brilliant Nigerian artist titled the work Obedient Rock, saying the artwork depicts the image of a being who is coming to save people from their struggles.
He said: “The art portray image of our political messiah who is willing to comply with the positive commands, orders, or instructions of people if elected into authority. This artwork mated with aluminum and stitched with copper wire shows the solidify nature of Nigeria as a strong nation.”
Chibuike went further to say that the colours on the portrait represent different things. The green and blue colours represent growth and love for Nigerians.
For the patches of gold and black on the artwork, he said: “The reflection of Gold and black signifies his indigenous golden mind and motives to make life worth living for everyone.”
Exploring wastes for their values
According to Chibuike, environmental wastes could be recycled into meaningful things. He is going after a future he described as building “human equilibrium ecology by recreating waste objects like plastic packaging strap (PPStrap), aluminum and copper wire.”
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