Skip to main content

Diseye Tantua and the Art of Transportation and Sitting



Diseye Tantua, Demas Nwoko and the Demas Nwoko's seats
Diseye Tantua, Demas Nwoko and the Demas Nwoko's seats
African Pop Art, fascination for transportation in Nigeria and a great friendship and a partnership with artist and architect Demas Nwoko are the words that come to mind when talking about Diseye Tantua.
Both of them were are at the opening of Diseye Tantua's latest exhibition S'Art in Victoria Island curated by Arthouse at the Kia Showroom on Akin Adesola street. 
A giant wooden chair with both of their faces painted in pop-art colours on the backrest was welcoming visitors on the parking lot. And not far from it was the huge blue pick-up from Diseye with a pirate-faced logo and a " D Artist" licence plate. All was told about the exhibition inside the hall. Cars and other transport means are essential to humanity, pop-art is fun and the nigerian roads are an endless source of common wisdom based upon the countless slogans painted on commercial vehicles that are plying the roads.
Traditional party headgear, Diseye Tantua
Traditional party headgear, Diseye Tantua
Beyond the art of sitting (he calls it S'art for the the past tense of to sit), Diseye is painting in pop-art colours nigerian motives (lady's headgear, lady's hairstyle, Fela).
Keke today, Private Jet tomorrow, Diseye Tantua
Keke today, Private Jet tomorrow, Diseye Tantua
He also produced some spectacular reinterpretation of cars into piece of home furniture.

Red Benz 200 table and chairs, Diseye Tantua
Red Benz 200 table and chairs, Diseye Tantua

Front VW seat (rat rod style), Diseye Tantua
Front VW seat (rat rod style), Diseye Tantua


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Ogiamien family in Benin City: about wood and history

Roland Ogiamien in his wood-carving workshop Wood Roland Ogiamien is a renown wood carver. He is now retired in his home town of Benin City and is now in his 80s. We met him in his simple workshop, a barn opened on the surrounding greenery. A part of the studio is used to store wood pieces and make sure they are well dried. He is using a collection of german ustensils to carve and polish the wood. He spent most of his career working out of Lagos before relocating to Benin. Roland was explaining that the wood he uses today is different that the one he worked on in his early days. Ebony has become rare and wood carvers have had to switch to other types of wood. Traditional heritage is a large part of his inspiration which he translates on wood with his own particular style, exploring various techniques for the finish of his pieces. Roland Ogiamien and two of his favourite masks History Ogiamien is the name of an important royal family in Benin Kingdom. Towards the end of the ...

Victor Uwaifo, the Highlife music legend from Benin City

Prof. (Sir) Victor Uwaifo playing Joromi Benin City is famous for its millenary culture that can be traced back to the beginning of the 10th century AD with a dynasty of about 30 rulers called Ogisos. They were followed by the Obas, that have been ruling until today. The city is famous for its bronze casting tradition and also for its music. Prof. Victor Uwaifo is one of the musical legends of Nigeria. He was the first African to win a Record Golden Disc in Africa with a music title called Joromi back in 1966. He spearheaded Highlife music in his own way and represented Nigeria at Festac, Black and Arts festival, in 1977 in Lagos. Music has always occupied a large part of his life but Prof. is also known to be a man of many talents. He was a good sportsman and he diversified his career by studying arts and sculpture in particular. He has taught for years at Uniben (the University of Benin City) and obtained a PhD in that field in the late 1990s. Victor Uwaifo representing...

Iragbiji, the town of Chief Muraina Oyelami

running up the hill Iragbiji is a small but lively town, in Osun state, surrounded by hills made of curvy rocks emerging from the plain and partly patched with green. It is part of Yorubaland, about sixty kilometres East of Osogbo . The heart of the town is the palace of the Oba (King of the area) next to a yellow multi-storeyed central mosque. The Oba is a muslim. the Oba of Iragbiji Chief Muraina Oyelami , a versatile artist born in 1940, is residing in Iragbiji. He is both a talented talking-drum player and a painter. He welcomed us in his house for a talk on Yoruba culture especially about the talking drums which evolved in shape overtime to the modern form of goat skin cylinder whose sound can be altered by squeezing the ropes that are tied along the circumference of the drum to produce tons and therefore allows to emulate the Yoruba language through rhythm and tonality. three sets of Yoruba drums There are actually three types of drums each playing a specific ro...