The Hyena & Other Men by Pieter Hugo

'The Hyena & the Other Men' series by South African photographer, Pieter Hugo depicts Nigeria's controversial hyena handlers in a remarkable way.

After a friend emailed Hugo a photograph of the handlers taken with a camera phone and similar images in a South African newspaper, he became determined to find out more about them. With the help of a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Ademola, the handlers were tracked down in a shanty town in the outskirts of Abuja.

For eight days, Hugo travelled with these extraordinary handlers, to understand their lifestyle and find truth to the numerous myths surrounding their existence.
Popularly known across Nigeria as the 'Gadawan Kura' (hyena handlers), this unique group have been ostracized from society for many generations. The general belief in the Northern part of Nigeria is that they are armed robbers, debt collectors and drug dealers who use traditional medicine.
In reality, the Gadawan Kura people are similar to members of a Circus, travelling around the country, performing various acts. The difference being, the star elephants, horses and lions are hyenas, bamboos and monkeys. There is no big show with bright lights and fancy dressed circus girls, but bewildered and excited crowds in little market places and villages.

With much amazement, Hugo describes the relationship between the handlers and the animals as 'paradoxical'. Sometimes the handlers are 'doting and affectionate' with the animals. While other times, they are 'brutal and cruel' says Hugo in his personal account of his experiences.

I've been an avid fan of Hugo's work since his Nollywood series. I admire his innovation and daring creativity. My favourite photograph from the series is the third photograph of the little girl lying on top of the hyena. The beautiful juxtaposition of her peaceful face and the hyena's frightening growl is utterly remarkable.
For more of Pieter Hugo's work, click here.

The Anatomy of Beauty ~ Imo Nse Imeh

Imo Nse Imeh is a Nigerian American scholar of African art and aesthetics. Imo's parents hail from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Although he is American-born, Imo’s Ibibio heritage has become a central point of reference and contemplation. Thus the Southern part of Nigeria plays a bit part in his inspiration and vision.

There is something about his art work, that is so out of the ordinary, it makes one look beyond the soft strokes of his brush into the meanings behind the figures and faces. I love how he paints stoic faces and tranquil bodies, paired with tortured forms, leaving the viewer with the notion of pain, but at the same time, survival. Imo explains his art as him imagining the world as comprising a conceptual fattening house, in which the isolated black body realizes trauma and devastation, but then emerges with insight, acuity and spiritual prowess.

For me, it is important to show the suffering that black people have endured through the history of time but it is even more important to show that through such trauma we gained knowledge, power and depth which no one can take away from us. This is why i think Imo nse imeh's work is devastatingly relevant to the world we live in today. It reminds us of where we came from, but at the same time shows us the beautiful places that we are going to.

~Beauty, Elephant Dung & the Artist~ Chris Ofili

Chris Ofili is a British Nigerian, born in 1968. He studied Art at the Chelsea school of Art in London. His experimental, cross-media artwork has provoked much controversy over the years, especially his depiction of the Holy Virgin Mary and his use of Elephant dung in his paintings. Yes, you read it right, elephant dung. One painting, 'No Woman No Cry' was inspired by the grief of the parents of Stephen Lawrence. Stephen, a London student, was murdered in a race attack. His death prompted a massive inquiry into race relations. The painting depicts a weeping black woman and Stephen Lawrence's face appears in each tear. Probably my favorite Ofili piece. His visions can amuse, abhor and affect,combining the holy and the obscene. Blending hip-hop culture with traditional folklore and spirituality sets him aside from other artists, smacking his points of view on the canvass like marmite. You either love him or hate him.  I've decided firmly on the former. ❤ him.

I wonder if i can get him to do a customized painting for me, minus the elephant dung...perhaps substitute it with some dark chocolate? Just a thought! xoxo

~The Jack of All Trades~ Iké Udé

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Iké Udé is an artist, writer and publisher of New York-based aRUDE magazine. After studying in Nigeria and America, Udé started his artistic career as a painter in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he began using photography to explore and deconstruct issues of representation and identity. His research engages him to use different forms of mass communication including magazines, television and film. This man is a true artist with a vast amount of fantastic work under his belt. I could not choose what to centre this post around so i decided to do snippets of what i consider to be my favorite from his eclectic collection of work. He has been featured on Vanity fair's best dressed list and has published his very own Style File featuring 'the world's most elegantly dressed'. 

The installation was  inspired by Ude's work; 'Beyond Decorum'. It  featured two contradicting images of Kibardin posing in a classic grey suit and six pairs of men’s shoes in see-through PVC . While the techniques employed to make the embroideries and the footwear are conceived in this installation as a sort of hymn to craftsmanship, the shoes themselves are used to break the stereotype that sees men’s footwear as smart and elegant but not necessarily sexy. Ordinary shoes are therefore turned into fragile and theatrical art pieces that suggest an outward/inward dichotomy and eventually reveal the wearer’s most secret and genuine essence. I think these shoes are beyond fabulous and so creative its simply, genius.




When i first came across Udé's "Cover girls" I thought he had been featured on the Vogue, Cigar Afficionado, GQ and all the other fabulous magazines. But after some research I found out the covers are a series of fabricated magazine covers, with a deep rooted critique.  In the series "Beyond Decorum" Udé creates a visual document for a cultural absence. Similarly, here Udé becomes the 'covergirl' gracing the cover of Cigar Afficionado as a black man in dramatic drag make up and on Parenting as a black baby on a walk with his white nanny. While Udé's identity changes from cover to cover the monotony of the traditional upper-class white cover model becomes apparent. The "Covergirl" series recalls many historical influences from Andy Warhol's multi-media, pop art fascination with thecreation of celebrity and more recently Cindy Sherman's use of costuming to explore the cultural icons and stereotypes of women. There is something about Ude's perception of art that is oddly refreshing, individualand distinct. It's art like i've never seen before and i think thats why i love it so much!

In his Uli series, Udé creates compelling, lyrical images that capture the elegance of high fashion and theanonymity of the inscribed and disembodied self. The work below is inspired by Ude's Igbo background by recalling the body motifs of uli, a woman's art form. His photographs portray his love for light and shadow, the interrogations of identity and the body & the interplay between form and script.