Fulbright Scholar's Art Reflects on Nigerian Life Today
"I look at art as a kind of document," says Clement Ademola Williams, a Nigerian printmaker who has used his Fulbright Research Award since November to establish residence at the University, mastering new techniques for his own work as well as acquiring methods of instruction to young artists in his own land.
Williams has been expanding his artistic medium since coming to America last September, using calligraph and zinc-plate techniques of hand-press printing, and experimenting with a variety of textures and temporal qualities in etching techniques.
But his message is much the same. "Every art is a reflection of its own time," said Williams. "The work comes up from somewhere, true. You do things in your way, and you need the past to enlighten the future. But must never stay in the past, and so I must address the problems of Nigeria and world today."
Some of his works address political events, such as the silk-screen print "Hopes of the Living Dead (June 12)," which depicts the chaos and contradictions of a June 12, 1993, government crack-down. Others, like the silk screen "Felicity," study current trends, in this case the recent oil boom in Nigeria which has established poles of great oil wealth and extreme poverty. Still others deal with the existential, as in "Creation," where various forms seem to emanate from a women's party gown.
In nearly all, Williams focuses on people, their dress, their interaction, and their play. "Each work conveys the sense of a festival," said Williams. "There are different kinds of festivals, like life: festivals of success, or failure. If life is in balance then the festival is happy and the sun is shining. But when it is cold, as in 'Felicity,' the mood changes, people do not connect, the images are harsher, less musical."
Williams' work was observed and appreciated by Department of Art faculty member Phyllis Galembomages are harsher, less musical. If your surroundings are not happy, a festival is not happy. in one of her trips to Africa. He was one of two faculty members at the University of Benin who applied for Fulbrights from the U.S. Information Agency, and one of 62 applying from Nigeria's 31 universities. He was one of five selected for grants from this group.
Williams, who in past had received a B.A. in art and design from Bradford College in England, spent his first two months at the Bob Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop in New York City, before coming to Albany.
"At the workshop it was a wonderful place to exchange ideas with other printmakers," he said. "In Albany, it's a very different set-up. This is an institution to prepare you for anything. I am learning alternative and innovative processes that I will use for my work and then be able to translate in order to benefit my students and colleages at the University of Benin."
Williams, who began his journey into printmaking in 1968 with a workshop by the American-trained artist Solomon Wangboje at the University of Ife, says that currently in Nigeria, "as with governments all over the world, less attention is being paid to art and education. There is some set of people in Nigeria who still regard artists as people who can't think.
"And printmaking in particular in Nigeria is yet to be fully developed and appreciated like painting, sculpture, textiles and ceramics. But if we can mitigate against a shortage of qualifed teachers and facilties, we can contribute to its development. That is what I am trying to accomplish here."
He has also learned a little more about the world. "The people of Nigeria are very much friendlier than the people in the West," he said, "but the the people in America are definitely friendlier than the English people. After a short time here in Albany, I received more than five invitations to Thanksgiving dinner."