Nigerian artist uses "helmets" as a metaphor for migration in new exhibition

KentOnline / KMTV

A new exhibition, titled "Reflection", is on display at the Royal Engineers Museum until the 22nd March.   Nigerian visual artist, Abolore Sobayo, uses helmets as a metaphor for the complex realities of migration and takes inspiration from his come country, Nigeria, and his own personal experiences.   Nailah Mahomed reports.

Transcript

00:00What does self-protection look like when you're new to an environment that's unfamiliar?

00:05Well, for Nigerian visual artist Abolore Sabayo, self-protection comes in the form of a helmet.

00:12In his latest art series, Reflection, Abolore explores how the helmet, or a koto in Yoruba,

00:19can be used as a metaphor for the complex realities of migration.

00:24This exhibition is in the Royal Engineering Museum in the heart of Medway. Now the artist

00:29has taken inspiration from Formula One helmets, which are known for being bash,

00:33and colourful, and full of messages from the drivers and their sponsors.

00:37In this instance, the artist uses the helmet as a way to convey his message

00:42about his perspective on migration to the Kent community.

00:45Most of the people when you talk about migration focuses only on people seeking asylum,

00:50which migration for me is far beyond that. For migrants, the helmet is to protect your cultural

00:57identity while you are assimilating the new culture from where you are coming into. The helmet is

01:03taking its form of protection for you from the fast lane, from the new journey you're taking,

01:09the place of unknown where you're going to.

01:11Abolore uses Nigeria, his home country, and his own personal experiences as a migrant as inspiration

01:18for some of his artwork, and in the visor of the helmet, he paints a reflection of a memory or a

01:24reality a migrant may face while living away from home. Members of the museum thought the exhibition

01:30is important to the many communities in Kent.

01:33It's opening up this community to other people, so a lot of the idea of this space is to get people who

01:41don't have a place to display their work or to display their ideas, to give them this space

01:49within the heart of Medway, and it really opens up an audience, a new audience.

01:55Abolore hopes that his exhibition can encourage communities to reflect on the emotional

02:00and cultural layers of migration, and to also consider what we would choose to protect

02:05when we enter the unknown. Naila Mohamed for KMTV

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