Heritage, tradition and identification: the artwork of TP4STYLE

How will we have a good time our heritage and tradition? How will we stay true to the values of our ancestors, whereas creating a lifetime of our personal in a unique nation? That is one thing everybody who migrates to a different nation or is born to oldsters who moved from one other nation struggles with. This celebration is on the coronary heart of Temitope Ogunseitan’s artwork, generally known as TP4STYLE.

He introduced three works at a current exhibition at W3 gallery in London. His work ‘Dudu’ celebrates the energy of black womanhood and honours his West African heritage. Surrounded by fruits, she symbolises nourishment and the vitality of life, in addition to the cultural heritage that passes down via generations, usually from moms to their little children. 

Whereas on this work, the fruits are freshly reduce and harvested, I’m reminded of the Dutch vanitas work that use fruit to remind us that life is fleeting. In spite of everything, fruit solely stays contemporary for a short while earlier than it rots. Whereas they took a unique method to the digital portray of TP4STYLE, each remind us that we should always seize the day and dwell the life we wish, as it’ll cross all too shortly, and if we waste it on issues that don’t make us comfortable, then we’ll solely remorse it as soon as it’s too late. 

Returning to the work within the present, I used to be significantly drawn to the muscular man with a rose for his head, titled ‘Okunrin’, which means man in Yoruba. For me, this work addresses the query being requested worldwide about what it means to be a person or a girl right now. It’s mentioned that we’re residing via a disaster of masculinity the place males aren’t certain of their place in a world that’s slowly edging in direction of equality. 

But there’s additionally a poisonous pushback from the ‘manosphere’ selling an outdated view of masculine dominance that has no place on this planet right now, and presents a big menace to ladies worldwide. On this work, I see recognition that masculinity additionally comes from being tender and caring, and from utilizing these muscular tissues to assist and shield others. 

Using flowers as a motif additionally resonated with me. They’ve lengthy been related to femininity; whereas most vegetation have each female and male reproductive organs, they’re gendered solely by societal norms. Males current ladies with flowers in romantic overtures, but it surely’s seldom the opposite method round, nor when males are assembly different males. Masculinity could be about smelling the roses and embracing the great thing about the pure world. 

The floral motif carries over to the lady within the hanging yellow go well with with a flower over her ear and one other on her lapel. The title of the work, ‘Orisa’, references the West African deities and, on this case, the deity Osun, related to fertility. She is a giver of life and sits neatly between the opposite two works. Whereas Osun is feminine, many orisa sit outdoors Western gender norms and in them I see a name to embrace all individuals, nonetheless they select to current themselves. 

We are able to see clear hyperlinks between these three works and the artist’s wider observe, the place he works with images, sustainable trend, textile design, and illustration. All through this observe, his work centres on embracing and celebrating completely different identities, combining his West African heritage along with his expertise residing within the UK, to construct his distinctive interdisciplinary model.

Extra details about the artist could also be discovered on his Instagram and web site.