Meet the artist
Name: Ayomide Tejuoso
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Where are you from and where do you live? I go to school in South Africa for now, but my home and soul is in Lagos.
What mediums do you typically work with? Why? I focus more on photography and digital art. I believe that photography allows you to fully express the echoes of your mind in a much more direct and creative way. It also disciplines your mind. You have to delve into your thoughts and create art through them before you make them come alive. Most people would say that photography is easy, but I have been drawing for the last 10 years of my life, and I can tell you that photography is bloody hard. It takes focus to concentrate for hours and create art in your brain before you make a set (photography set), get models and then take the pictures. I also love photography because it is intimate and raw. There is a relationship between the camera and the photographer, the camera and the model, and the model and the photographer.
What responsibilities, if any, do you take on as a creator? I think it's my responsibility to express and highlight the vulgarity of my space. I also think it's my responsibility to express the gravity of my thoughts through my art because if I don't, my art won't have any value. Art is a visual representation of the spirits within an artist, and if I am not expressing those spirits then my art has no value. That's why people would never shit on Basquiat, no matter how shit one of pieces may look. It's still art because they are his spirits. His art was his soul and spirit being drawn. If you study him, you would fucking die, cus its bloody, fuHcking mad. He would write things like nigger, neggress, glorifying and reducing the value of the black identity. This brings up the idea that he probably glorified and reduced the value of his identity like his art was an exploration of his mind. Looking at art gods, like him, has really paved what I see as my responsibilities as an artist.
What do you want your audience to know about you and/or your art? I want them to know that I love to create mad things, and I believe in freedom of speech and thought. My art explores the diversity of my thoughts and the pain in my soul.
What are your hopes for the future? I want to be one of the greatest artists in the world, by God's grace.
Is there anything else you would like to share? I am creating a performance art piece in Lagos, Nigeria: The "march of no reason", is a protest I will be initiating in Lagos this August. This protest is a performance art piece carried out by 500 people. We would be protesting against nothing which is why it is called the "march of no reason". The protesters will march around some parts of Lagos for 3 hours on the 20th of August. The protesters will wear masks on their faces, making them be called the kids with no faces. For more info, message me. We are protesting against nothing because no shout is enough to stop the bullshit called Nigeria. If you guys could spread the word about this, that would be cool. Click here to see the poster.
Instagram: @plantationofficial