i met a wonderful visual/performance artist, wura-natasha ogunji, last month in lagos. she works with textiles, thread, video, and paint, creating visual tapestries that conjure history and memory.

wura was in nigeria to "gather images and sound" from the birthplace of her late father, whom she hardly knew in life while growing up with her white mother in the states. we took a day trip to abeokuta, chatted on the way there and back about the process of tracing our parents' footsteps, about being cultural insider/outsiders. in the course of our journey we climbed olumo rock, visited itoku market, and took photographs of the (very polluted) ogun river.

i am very eager to see what art comes out of her journey. perhaps even more so after seeing a review online of one of her shows, a collaboration with performance artist jelili atiku (who had a wonderful video installation piece in the green spaces exhibit @ cca).

in light of recent blogs of a more personal nature, i was also rather pleased to find this short video up on her blog that she made while in abuja. enjoy! --AL.