By Akintayo Abodunrin
FRANCE-based designer Babatunde Banjoko, whose art in illustration and branding traverses Africa, has been confirmed as one of the participating artists at the 2023 ArtMiabo International Art Festival (AMIAF) themed ‘Art of Afrobeats’.
The festival from April 27 to May 1 at Ebonylife Place, Victoria Island, Lagos, is an unusual visual arts festival focussing on the trajectory of the Afrobeat music genre. At AMIAF, Banjoko, one of the designers of Fela’s album covers, publicity materials and band costumes, will celebrate Afrobeat uniquely.
One of those inspired by the late maverick, Banjoko disclosed that he is “bringing into the ‘Arts of Afrobeat’ festival, the narrative years of design collaboration with the late Fela Kuti, who was the precursor of the genre that has since gone international.” He added that whatever glory is being celebrated currently about Afrobeats, the genre’s trajectory can’t be denied, which “gave birth and credence to the Afrobeats derivation. This is factual.”
AMIAF, founded by artist and gallerist Miabo Enyadike, exposed the potential in art from Africa during its first edition held at the same venue last year. Over 20 artists from across Africa and the diaspora appeared at the maiden edition.
Other creative professionals of Afrobeat background joining Banjoko this year include Lemi Ghariokwu, who created over 20 album designs for Fela, and Ed Keazor, historian and founder of Ikenga Band, which has some Afrobeat artists. Also joining as a special guest is photographer Bolaji Alonge, whose works and career focus on the post-Fela era but identify with the Afrobeats spirit of creative dexterity.
Loaded with quite some iconic personalities, AMIAF 2023 is injecting freshness into the Afrobeats theme as artist and brand expert, Yusuf Durodola oversees the creative management as curator. While the challenge of managing the creative content rests on the curator’s shoulder, the global perspective to the theme of AMIAF 2023 can be viewed through the lens of artists like Banjoko.
As a graphic artist based in Europe, Banjoko has a broad link between Afrobeat or Afrobeats music genre and fine art. “Firstly, I’m a visual artist with multiple knowledge: fine-arts, graphics, multimedia design, photography, tapestry, stained glass, and pottery,” Banjoko stated. His pool of knowledge, he disclosed, has been derived by studying widely across cultures.
In analysing the link between art and Afrobeat,
Banjoko noted that the richness of Afrobeat music in sounds, lyrics and colours inspired different forms of art that are used in conveying a critical message. He added that the broadness of art, in both fine and applied contexts such “as painting, illustration, design, graphics, advertising and publicity, fashion design, cloth making, embroidery, jewellery, shoe fabrication, make-up, costume design, photography and scenography, printing,” all are linked to Afrobeat.
For example, Banjoko recalled how he brought his art skills into working with Fela. “Afrobeat famous compositions and moods are incorporated into album covers, designed with mixed mediums of expression.”
He also explained how Afrobeat has influenced what he described as his “dynamic approaches in rendering some of Fela’s record covers, newspaper adverts, concert posters, costume design for the lady dancers and patterns on some of the Afrobeat legend’s costumes and shoes.”
Banjoko has a brief on his presentations for AMIAF 2023. One of the works most likely to feature at AMIAF is ‘King Penguins’. There is an engaging, though short, provenance about the sculpture. He recalled that three months before the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw the birds depicted during his travels to the ‘Hog Island Archipelago’, one of French’s Southern and Antarctic overseas territories.
And in creating the sculptures, the dynamics of colour and clay came to the fore. “After firing in the oven, this medium of the brown clay changes from brown to dark brown,” Banjoko explained. “Such clay is ideal for making small and medium sculpture pieces as medium brown clay is highly sought after for its colour transformation.”
He, however, disclosed that for logistics and right protection issues, he wouldn’t give further details of what he will be showing at AMIAF 2023. “In Nigeria, our beloved nation, conditions of protection of artworks differ to the regulated conditions in the Western World,” Banjoko explained. “For sure, Nigeria has a bright future and is on its way in measuring up to those standards and find its rightful place in history.”
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