00:00Every cable was once connected to a conversation, a business, a family, a life.
00:06Then it was thrown away.
00:08In my immediate neighborhood, there are tons of e-waves around us.
00:11I create work from discarded materials to give them new life and create beautiful things out of them.
00:17Patience and Dekunle turns discarded wires into portraits now shown in galleries around the world.
00:23I tell stories through my work and I go around in search of electronic materials and discarded cables
00:29to create beautiful pieces of artworks.
00:32Most artists begin with a black canvas.
00:34Patience begins where technology ends.
00:37I realized that cables could tell Iman's story after my very first project.
00:42The first project I did with cable was a portrait of Ibukua Wushika.
00:46I think about the past lives of each cable whenever I create.
00:50Some of these wires are burned, some are burned, some has one or two damage.
00:55So I think about this problem that they have.
00:59How can I inculcate this problem in the story I'm trying to tell?
01:02That will also give me the direction as to which I can use them.
01:07Some of these big cables, I use them to represent boldness and the size of the subject matter I'm talking
01:13about.
01:13I use TechWayz to tell a man's story because wires and cables have their own language.
01:20They have different language.
01:22Some requires patience, some requires flexibility, some requires them to give them enough time.
01:27So working with these materials helped me realize that personally I need to be patient with all those materials.
01:33They speak different language to me according to the kind of wires or cable that I'm working with.
01:39Wires signifies power and strength.
01:42So I use cables to represent the resilience and strength of African community, especially women, because women go through a
01:50lot of struggles.
01:51I'm able to depict this using the portraits of women, which I'm able to convey the emotion, the mood that
01:57these women go through.
01:59I want my artwork to spark a story that lasts beyond canvas.
02:02I want people to see identity, I want people to see statements about my artwork, merging traditional arts and technology
02:09arts in African contemporary art.
02:12Patience understands that these cables once carried more than electricity, they carried conversations.
02:18Things that captures my attention most are things that already lost their lives.
02:23Things that are worthless, that are no useful again.
02:26For instance, as small as our chargers, when they are 40, we tend to discard of them.
02:31And I'm always glad to work with these pieces in order to create amazing pieces of artwork.
02:36Every bend, every twist, every woven strand carries tension, resistance and release, echoing the struggles and resilience of everyday life.
02:47My biggest struggle as a visual artist that creates artwork with e-waste is the ability to get the materials
02:54that I need to work with in time.
02:56I source for material around, from scrap stores, pick up from the ground, the mechanic store, phone repair shop.
03:03So people were skeptical about giving me those materials, even for a fact that all those materials are not working
03:09again.
03:09Another struggle that I face is people's reaction and society's reaction to my work.
03:14People do not really understand the kind of art I create, which is sustainable art.
03:19So after sourcing the materials and separating them, I get them washed, clean them up, dry them and I separate
03:26them into my palette.
03:28Then I cut them into smaller sizes so as to make it easier for me to work with.
03:33I sketch the piece I want to work on and I begin to work.
03:37Working with this wire has been able to reveal simplicity because I have limited colors of wire that I'm able
03:47to get.
03:48But with that, I'm still able to bring out form in whatever work that I'm working on, which will form
03:53a complete body of work.
03:56The materials I work with are real materials from everyday life, which we pick up and we come across in
04:02our day-to-day activities.
04:04Compared to paint, once they dry up, it's always difficult for us to work with them.
04:08But unlike wire, whether it is bad, whether it is faulty, that is when their life begins.
04:13When people say that my works are made from communication cable, I want them to understand that even with their
04:20faulty materials, even with their obsolete materials, they can always be renewed.
04:26I want people to see my artwork as testament of hope, that there is life after every hope is lost.
04:31A new cable once transported power, now wasted, but in Patience's hands, it becomes something powerful new.
04:39One word that describes the way I feel about these artworks is provoked, because it challenges the way I think.
04:47I was amazed and I felt surprised that we can also make use of other conventional materials in creating beautiful
04:57pieces like this.
04:59Every call and message runs on wires we don't see.
05:03Patience adequately makes them visible, reminding us technology is human at its core.
