Ozioma Onuzulike. Strings the Length of Our Palm’s Seal

About

A ceramicist, poet and scholar, Onuzulike began his career as an artist at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he is now a professor. Through high-fired earthen- and stoneware clay works, Onuzulike articulates analogies for deeply embedded traumas from civil wars and corporative battles across the continent, for memories that continue to shape and form the present. 

Among recent works by the artist, the exhibition presents a series of large-scale ceramic installations. In The Honeycomb Project, hexagonal holes cut into clay slabs are placed consecutively like tiles to mimic the architecture of beehives. A product of immense labor, detail and craft, the installations were initially conceived as an homage to the global importance of frontline workers during the first wave of the 2020 pandemic. Simultaneously, the ceramic installations exist as significant demurrals against the lasting passages of transatlantic trade routes, which still witness the global distribution of natural resources taken from Africa. These journeys, referenced also as strings in the exhibition title, are poetically visualized through the long lines threaded through ceramic seeds of works such as Agbada (“1,500 Brand”) and Extra-Large-Sized Jumper, both from 2022.