My gallery space
My gallery space, Austin, TX.
My gallery space, Austin, TX.
Moyo Okediji
Title: The Butterfly Thinks Himself A Bird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date 2021
Size: 24″ x 30″
The title is an important line in playwright Ola Rotimi’s masterpiece, THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME.
Rotimi took the line from a Yoruba proverb, “Labalábá fira rẹ̀ wẹ́ye, kò le ṣìṣe ẹyẹ.” ̛It means, “The butterfly compares itself to the bird, but is unable to perform like a bird.”
The Akodi Orisa that I constructed in 2011, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria. It is the model for the one in Ile Ife.
“Ó dàbọ̀,” which is what stands for the idea of goodbye, actually is the very opposite of goodbye.Why? Because “Ó dàbọ̀” does not say that you are leaving.Rather, as you depart, you are speaking of “àbọ̀,” meaning, “the return.”As you depart, you begin to celebrate your return.
The Massacre of General Okoro
Is it funny
or merely coincidental
That, as they killed her son,
the mother was dreaming
She was breastfeeding him?
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Bèbè Ìdí (Beaded Waistline)
Medium: Terracotta
Date 2010
AMERICANA AT OKADA PARK
“You fine o. You wan marry Okada?”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, nau. Mek Americana marry Okada.”
“What?”
“Lekki marry Ajegunle o, Americana marry musician…”
“Don’t understand you.”