Sabitlenmiş Tweet
If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? In the digital collage series If a Tree Falls..., this question shifts from a philosophical riddle to an interrogation of historical trauma. The early 20th-century photographic archives that dictate the study of Mbari are fundamentally deconstructed and reclaimed. This work forcefully confronts a jarring paradox: the very forces responsible for the erasure of Igbo cultural continuity are the same entities responsible for collecting and housing its remnants today. By removing the human figures from these colonial records, the pieces leave behind stark, poignant voids prompting the viewer to ask whether our understanding of this heritage would even exist today if it hadn’t been archived by the ones who disrupted it.
Yet, out of these heavy, silent archives, a powerful act of resistance emerges. In place of what was stolen, the compositions introduce recurring, vibrant motifs inspired by traditional Uli patterns the sacred designs that once adorned the exteriors of Mbari houses. The Uli motifs' bold geometry breaks past the structural boundaries of the frames, actively bleeding onto and transforming the surrounding walls. By expanding outward, the artwork refuses to stay locked inside the historical frame, bridging the gap between fragmentation and the contemporary to prove that what was meant to be silenced is still making a sound.
English
