Odi Oquosa’s works – painting, poems, sculptures and photographs are explorations of his insights and outsights – they define a way of life.
His work moves dynamically between realism and abstraction, bringing visions, thoughts, philosophy, history and culture from the conscious and unconscious…into reality.
His work describes a journey of manifestation and transformation. It is deeply influenced by his African roots. Paintings, wood and stone sculptures, textiles and poetry are all used as metaphors for an organic process representing emotion. The work makes reference to fundamental elements such as earth, water, fire and air in symbolic form.
Odi Oquosa’s artwork is pregnant with visions and thoughts – it simultaneoulsy represents an exploration of the artist’s self indentity and a quest to discover universal truths.
Sculptures use a range of diverse, sometimes as found materials, such as tree roots, Zimbabwe opal, serpentine stones and other materials as found on sea-shores, forests and woodlands. Some elements are worked or carved to unveil their soul and beingness…
Odi Oquosa’s artwork enables him to mend and pray for himself and the rest of mankind. In that sense his works are often political statements. His artwork also helps to repair the soul, mind and body, promotes a joy of understanding of nature’s language and in the process helps us all establish a sense of our own place within the universe.
Odi’s work inhabits a tantalising subliminal space where contemporary and historic are in dialogue and where culture and cosmology intertwine with nature. From the curves of the human form to poignant moments in African history, the viewer is taken on Odi’s journey of exploration and Igbo cosmology. We see how the self is connected to the past and the present as well as the importance of healing. Odi’s oil, acrylic and emotion paintings are intense and vivid as colours blended together in an anthropomorphic way representing the physical manifestation of energy onto canvas. This can enable the viewer can perceive the power of the painting and to imagine the canvas as a lived moment. Very impressive is the use of soap and serpentine which represent Igbo deities. Odi manifests exquisitely aesthetic creations of Agwu using many of his mediums including soap and serpentine sculpture. Agwu is the patron of divination and medicine which is central to Odi’s work due to his possession of Agwu. Drawing from his Igbo culture and spirituality as a Shaman he fuses his knowledge of psychology through healing to produce wonderfully dynamic and thought-provoking art.Intriguingly, many of Odi’s paintings also incorporate other materials such as raffia, found objects and shells which bring nature and shamanism in dialogue with the scenes. I perceive Odi’s work to be transcending barriers through his incorporation of shamanism within his craft. This is not only refreshing but adds to the complexity and uniqueness of his work where Identity, trauma, and belonging are reconceptualised to convey the intersection between nature and the past.
Jessica Lowe-Mbirimi / MA African Studies with Heritage
