Akirash: “Eniyan Laso Mi”

Olaniyi R. Akindiya Akirash, or “Akirash,” is an artist and activist based out of Pflugerville, Texas and Lagos, Nigeria. He was slated for a live performance with Austin’s beloved Fusebox Festival this coming weekend, but has adapted (like a true artist) to current events with a new virtual performance experience. Read on for more about Akirash and the inspirations behind his Fusebox performance “Aabo - Shield.”

CA: Let’s start off with an overview of your work. What do you aim for in your performances and other work?

ORAA: My work focuses on fleeting moments of time that can be easily forgotten or transformed. Reflecting on rural versus urban life, the accelerated pace of development and social infrastructure, my works and performative activities play around social subjectivities with dramatic components, breaking down conventional barriers. 

I utilize a multitude of techniques and materials, including repurposed objects which may manifest in mixed media painting, sculpture, installation, video, photography, sound, performance. While inscribing all these mediums in my comprehensive compositions, my works achieve an accumulative density that overwhelms with spectacle, grandeur and wonderment. 

I believe art is an instrument to question and search for solutions - to dig out the truth without violence. Being surrounded by diversity of discipline and experience gives my work a grander scope and allows for more unexpected breakthroughs when searching for answers to what ails our society. 

Ultimately, my work is designed to create comfort, peace, and solace. I believe that art can be a balm to the soul, revealing a quiet inner truth. My art is a reflection of the joys of life, directly inspired by rhythm, harmony, and the movement of daily existence.

CA: How'd you get involved in art, and how did it move to performance?

ORAA: My first degree was in Biochemistry. I worked as a pharmacist for a few years... Then one day a colleague at the laboratory was ill. I went to see how he was doing, but there was an accident on the road to his house. He told me of another road I could take out, then I saw this Art school (Institute of Textile Technology Art and Design, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria). That moment changed my life. I returned back to school to study art and my career as an artist was born that moment.

Fifteen years ago I started performing. My first performance was in Accra Ghana and I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria in a society that every second is a performative act, even though they don't know it as performing art. Sometimes I laugh at myself when I look at videos or images of my performances. I will say “Really did I do that?” People know me to be someone who doesn't talk much and they might wonder where that person comes from called AKIRASH, and I still don't know.

CA: Can you tell us about how different mediums help you form, or approach, your visual language?

ORAA: I am driven by current social issues integral to human development, but with no easy answer. My works start with primary source interviews with those affected by the issue at hand. What I learn from these close contacts is interpreted into artworks complex in design, going through several stages before the final result. Most finished works will manifest in some combination of mixed media painting, sculpture installation, video or performance. The flexibility of media allows me to explore current social issues deeply from many angles, and touch people who may not otherwise find art in their everyday experience.

CA: How has your Fusebox performance evolved from its original state to this new, completely digital, experience?

ORAA: The plan that I had for Fusebox Festival has changed due to COVID-19. Originally, I was to collaborate with twenty individuals to look at the importance of "ORI - HEAD." With COVID-19 , I decided to change the performance to " Aabo - Shield" which focuses on why we need to follow simple rules like staying home and wearing a face mask to protect ourselves and others and to limit the spread of the virus.

In the performance we indicate that the virus can't be seen with our eyes, so as we walked around town it flew around and attached itself to our bodies and clothes and was carried home with us. In the performance my daughters spread red confetti. In the middle of the performance, I arrived at home, took off my costume, and they sprayed me with water. Then I (put on) another cloth, then (went) ever into quarantine. During the performance I prayed in Arabic, Christianity, and traditional languages.

CA: How have your background and education informed your work? Do elements of biochemistry ever play a role?

ORAA: I enjoy experimenting a lot, so YES my background in Biochemistry is always used every time I work on a project. My works are about process and it's a very intricate, complicated process and makes my works deep.

CA: How does your performance and video art differ from your sculpture, painting, and installation work?

ORAA: My performance and video is no different from my sculptures, painting, and installations. When I choose topics or themes to work on, it has occured to me that art is similar to food because humans have different tastes in food and are also drawn to artwork in different ways. Some better understand the message an artist is trying to convey with painting, and others sculpture, and others mixed media, or video or photography, or performance. So I ask myself in my studio “What is the genre that will best tell my story clearly to whoever sees the work?” So I choose two to four genres to work in so I can reach more audiences through my work. But performance has a kind of charm that attracts a larger audience.

CA: Do you ever find concepts, motifs, or movements coming up again and again?

ORAA: My works involve lots of reading, asking questions, and talking to people who have experience in the matter or find themselves in the midst of an issue. I do my best to hear it from their mouths. Researching, traveling, looking for materials that will best explain, and bring better understanding to those who set their eyes on the creation that comes out of the project.

My projects involve collaboration with no boundaries. We learn from one another, as well as reconnect to our own heritage. I always do my best to reach large audiences, those who may have never entered an art gallery. It’s very important to me to choose issues that concern all of us, in order to create dialogue.

There is also something powerful in the act of using traditional art forms to illuminate contemporary issues. It is a tool to address our current situation in health, politics, economy, war, as well as to generate tourism and increase collaboration and better understanding.

My work is influenced and inspired by traditional weaving on a loom, so I find refuge in the textiles and patterns or designs that you see surface again and again in my sculptures, paintings, and installations. I use the abstract figure of male and female instead of thread to create the basis of my works and incorporate found or repurposed materials that best explain or have meaning to the subject I am working on or link the present to the past and open our eyes to what might or might not be possible in the future.

CA: Looking back, what are the smartest choices you made that positively impacted your career?

ORAA: Travelling, listening, reading, asking questions, taking risks, being open, experimenting, meeting people, respecting others, admitting when I am wrong, knowing my limits, and collaborating are the best choices I have made and it is still working.

CA: As a multinational artist, how do your concepts and materials translate from place to place?

ORAA: To me, weaving is a way to connect people, bringing everything together as one. Wherever I find myself, it's people that connect us all together. Maybe their languages, cultures, or religions differ, but we are all connected with a very slim thread which is art. It unites us all together and we are family in that moment.

CA: How are collaborations and community involvement through art important to you? Can you list some key collaborators, collectives or communities you're involved with?

ORAA: I have a motto which is traditionally "Eniyan Laso Mi." It means people are the cloth or fabric that covers and protects me. I am nothing without them.  What we are, who we are, how we get to where we are--it's all through somebody, or someone who got involved. I come from a tradition of people whose family is very important to us and we cherish community. When two, three, four, or multiple people come together, there is a very strong possibility of achieving greatness. So I have worked with thousands of people and hundreds of organizations and will continue on this road till I join my ancestors.

CA: What do you think the function/role of the artist in contemporary society is? What does 'good art' succeed in doing?

ORAA: For me, art is beyond beauty. Everything around us is art and as artists one big job we have is to be an eye-opener and commentator. We are to question our everyday existence, create works that awaken debates, and show the beauty of the world that surrounds us.  

It's a very hard question to answer, what art is good or not. For me, everyone who devotes their time to creating works and we call it art, that work of art is good to me. But there is a level when it comes to “good,” we can score for ourselves. I think it is successful if it engages the audience that sees it, not because of what the media says about the artwork, because the media will write what you pay for, so the critics in the newspaper, social media, and magazines do not do justice to the complete sincerity of an artwork.

Good artworks should be those that question you, give you something to think about, remind you of something, or open you to see beyond what the artist is saying.

CA: You've got quite a few residencies under your belt! Can you tell us about some of the most meaningful residency experiences you've had?

ORAA: A residency is like returning to school for me. They give me moments to look back into my past works to see how I can start something new or polish my work. Mostly it is a way to take sanctuary in a quiet space, focus on projects, and then return to my studio to develop them. Residencies are a venue to test and experiment with new materials.

CA: With everything going on with COVID-19, can you elaborate on the importance of 'peace and solace' and the human condition in your work?

ORAA: We as humans are the most difficult species to please. Nothing we do is enough and we consider ourselves to be wiser beyond anything else. We never imagined something like a virus would tell us all to stay home, to be afraid, and to see the value of our life and others. It teaches us to value what little we have. We have no idea when all this is going to be over, we are all just assuming. Even if we have never gone to a warfront before, we are in a war with an enemy we can't see and must assume that is closer to us than we can imagine.

Catch Akirash’s virtual Fusebox Festival performance, “Aabo - Shield” this Saturday, April 25 at 3:10pm CDT.

You can find Akirash online on his website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter.