Created by the Nigerian artists Vetum Galadima and Amaka Obioma, with sponsorship by Africa No Filter, it “combines museum technology and art direction to create a perspective for art preservation.”

Otosirieze

August 2, 2024

Vetum Gima Galadima and Amaka Obioma are among the five recipients of the inaugural Open Country Mag Curatorial Fellowship, sponsored by Africa No Filter. Their proposal was an artistic research, digital art, and mixed media project on Nok terracotta called Among Us. The initiative supported Among Us with $1,000 and mentorship by Lumen Prize winning artist Minne Atairu, A Nasty Boy founder Innanoshe Akuson, and Open Country Mag editor Otosirieze.

Obioma is a multimedia artist who works in performance, visual storytelling, fashion, and artistic research. She currently co-curates Tantdile Xperimenta Lab, an art collective that collaborates with the general public in a discussion of social issues. Her work explores human connection in the global stratosphere and means of sustainable living, womanism, and the body as media. It integrates freedom in perspective, syncretic beliefs, and socio-cultural activism.

Galadima is a visual interdisciplinary artist and curator from Kaduna. She is the creative director of Villager’s Paradise, of The Sundial, and of Vetum’s Pop -Up Space. She has a B.A. in Archaeology from Ahmadu Bello University and has working experience at the National Commission for Museum and Monuments, Ataoja’s Palace, and the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove. She is a 2021 Arts in Medicine Fellow and was a participant of the Goethe-Institut and Institut Francais 2021 Networking in Times of Crisis Digital Workshop. She has curated art exhibitions, including the #ArewaMeToo exhibition in Kaduna.

What is Among Us?

Among Us is an interdisciplinary project that creates 3D scans of Nok artefacts for an AR-scape in conception. Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, and Nok civilisation thrived from around 1500 BC to 500 AD, but the art we know today are dated from 500 BC to 200 AD. So we combine the concepts of museum technology and art direction to create a perspective for art preservation and archiving. The title “Among Us” emphasizes the continued presence and spiritual values of Nok heritage.

Read more: https://opencountrymag.com/presenting-among-us-scans-of-ancient-nok-art-for-an-ar-scape/