THE SEMANTICS OF TIME

Art does not exist in isolation. It is around us, within us; it challenges and informs us. The difference between fantasy and reality is sometimes marginal as we borrow from one to buttress the other. The exhibition theme The Long Road is Safer than the Short-Cut is an old Ijaw idiom I came across several years ago. At the time I was amassing a large catalogue of proverbs for a project and this particular idiom stood apart from the rest as it had many meanings. In its first translation it means 'take your time on your chosen path' and another meaning I discovered was 'time is the journey we cannot escape'.

We associate roads with journeys; traversing, displacement, movement and growth... going from one place to another. Journeys or distances covered are conceptually fixed; you know your starting point and final destination. Time on the other hand: not so much. We want to speed it up when we are late and slow it down to savour certain moments. It is slippery and we can't conquer it. Time is the journey. It is the journey of discovery, definition, identity, space, history and society.

The Long Road is Safer than the Short-Cut is a showcase of diversity and complexity in concept and execution by the selected artists Segun Adefila, Danielle Dean, Loza Maléombho, Odun Orimolade and Adeju Thompson. Their works are succinctly drawn from their experiences in society and coerce into action their artistic personalities. They approached various subject matters (journeys) and dissected everyday spaces, mediums and norms in unique and interesting ways.

Segun Adefila takes on the physical and psychological role of the masquerade in Ara Orun in which he questions the past, present and future states of individuality, hidden personas and our sense of community. Danielle Dean explores advertising, history and projected identity and interpellated roles in her works Pleasure to Burn, A Portrait of True Red and Life is Lived Better Together. Loza Maléombho subverts the selfie and pushes digital self-portraiture and identity into an evocative domain in her series #AlienEdits. In her drawing performance piece The White Mark, Odun Orimolade excavates the city hall quadrangle harnessing space, the elements and infinite possibilities of variation in her drawing performance process Amin Funfun. And lastly, Adeju Thompson's triptych I Am Not a Man takes us on a sensitive journey of self discovery. I had the pleasure of interviewing all the artists and I hope the interviews serve as a further journey into understanding them, their compulsions and the works on display.

LagosLive 2016 was organised by Marc-André Schmachtel, Director Goethe Institut Nigeria (2011 - 2016).