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| Eke Bright Born in 1976 in Imo, Nigeria. Lives and works in Nigeria. A group discussion on the manipulative tendencies of certain materials used for artistic statement aroused a controversy when I came up with the idea of working with water. “What do you want to show us”, a friend taunted. Well, I have learned to rely on the words of El Anatsui, “...as an artist, you don’t keep asking “Can I?” “can it be this?”. Ask yourself “why can’t it be this?”. I believe in that way one would be able to cope with and attempt the most dreaded of artistic experiments. Those words also try to deconstruct the barricade between what is and what is not material and its workability for artistic statements. Until now, a lot of materials, ideas, concepts and processes have been explored, yet a very wide blank is felt and is to be filled. It is this boundless concept of art that spurred my quest for new means of expression and informed my current interest in exploring water. Water has been represented in art in different ways since ancient times. Some artists have used symbols to represent this medium while some others tried to represent it realistically by painting water in motion -like flowing rivers and water falls. Water is a universal medium with a universal language. Unlike other tangible media, water posses a universal challenge to its user in terms of processes of representing and conceptualizing its ideas and concepts. I am interested in exploring water in ways that can examine global, human, and environmental issues. My motivation to explore water also lies in the fact that frequently we are confronted by problems posed by what water has caused to man, what man has caused to water, and so on. Considering the ideas, concepts and processes I explore in my work, transformation plays a major role in the articulation of these. Wholesome, deterioration, life and death can not be over emphasized. Every day life is a process and that informs my attitude to the handling of some of these ideas. Life itself is so dynamic and that is not only in our behaviors but also in our physical bodies which include our surroundings. In these sense, my idea can metamorphose and continue with its other side of existence, as it is affected by our attitudes and also affects them. Bright Eke  Download CV |  Shield, 2006 |
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