My first encounter with Ifesinachi’s new works inspired me to coin these words: “I have seen art and I have seen art works, but what Ifesinachi has done recently can be described as the consummated skill of a master, with a sense of beauty and ethnic eroticism, it is a combination of magic and art, written in a new mesmeric language; an absolutely incredible and durable mix of medium: The Liquid Metal”.

Beginning the journey to investigate his work process and finding a connection between his thoughts and experience as a hybrid artist with a great passion for the environment, is indeed another opportunity for meaning making, the intrigue and fascination for me lays in his process, like an ecosystem in reverse, like a blacksmith, he smiths solid aluminium into liquid caked in dynamic tablets, detailed with symmetric and geometric traditional Igbo symbols; Uli, and some contemporary wavy lines that when assembled become a composition of meaning.

His solo exhibition titled “Ulo Agba” explores the Igbo mud house painting and now “Nka na Uzu” A journey into Igbo ingenuity through Arts and Architecture, opening this Friday 5th March 2022 at the Centre for memories Enugu by 12:00 noon.

Nka na Uzu is Ifesinachi’s deeper conversation and romance with the red soil that is common Enugu which is the fundamental soil used by all blacksmiths. What does it mean? Where does his contemporary interpretation come from? It is this journey, this process and the phenomenon around his person and practice, that intrigues and inspires me, his larger-than-life installations of smithed silver cubes of about 3 inches, that are painstakingly put together to make a recognisable form or impression drawn from his rich traditional proverbs, folklore and experience.

It is a journey, because he seems to be reliving his childhood memories and freedom, hence his choice of a medium never before used to make panels; panels that echo endless symphonies when brushed over with the hand, creating an instant transportation to the village square before an Igele, the Igbo mystique masquerade.

Sitting in conversation with these individual panels will send endless patterns through your mind, like the magnificent movement of the Igele adorned with known fabrics concealing the unknown, but Ifesinachi’s magic is in his ability to be the chief priest as well as the spectator, something which even he might be unaware of. He leaves clues in each cube, taking you on a phantasmagorical journey. He becomes the known and the unknown and at the same time the unknown and the known. With this autonomy and the power that lays between the clay and metal - the conversation of elements like a convergence of spirits - he waves a powerful position of the smith and the painter. It is a creative journey touched by liquid, fire and earth.

Thank you.

Nduwhite Ndubuisi Ahanonu

Artists, Curator and Int’l Cultural Manager.