Nigerian Artist Weaves Women's Stories Through Traditional Cloth

© Marine Jeannin / RFI
Wanger Ayu (R) with Laetitia Ky at the opening of the "Regards contemporains" exhibition in Abidjan, at the LouiSimone Guirandou gallery, on 11 May 2023.
11 June 2023
Radio France Internationale

Nigerian visual artist Wanger Ayu uses traditional fabric as the backdrop for her paintings that highlight the experiences of African women.

Her series "Interwoven Realities" is on show at the LouiSimone Guirandou gallery in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

The exhibition is part of the collective exhibition "Regards Contemporains" in which three West African artists, Wanger Ayu, Laetitia Ky and Marius Dansou, work with ordinary everyday such as iron, fabric and hair, to find new ways of representing African women in art.

Wanger Ayu's portraits highlight the links woven between members of the same community by painting on the backdrop of black-and-white a'nger cloth, traditionally made by Tiv-speaking people of Nigeria's Benue State.

"In my paintings, I use the handwoven cloth which we can find in many African villages," Ayu says.

"I'm using the fabric because it's from my village in Benue State. My grandfather used to weave Tiv a'nger cloth before the Biafran War in Nigeria.

"It's about culture, it's about background, it's about heritage," she told RFI's Ariane Poissonnier.

"Regards Contemporains" runs until 24 June at the LouiSimone Guirandou gallery in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Read or Listen to this story on the RFI website.

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