Lately, I’ve been thinking about filmmaker, Trinh Minh-Ha’s phrase “speaking nearby” as a way to describe the visual approach of the Tatsuniya series. The intent of the seriesis not to directly approach this subject to extract useable information or to affirm a position in a traditional way, but rather to turn curiosities to the things that happen around the making of these images. Tatsuniya is about the intangible things that happen when you bring a group of young women together and hold space for creative expression to come through. It doesn’t find an easy point of departure from the often cited trauma the Boko Haram conflict has inflicted on the young. The series is about creating a space to be present with the present. About plotting an area for playful interaction where something undefined can be stimulated.
- Tatsuniya, 2017 - ongoing Still images, video, installation, workshop Please request for full portfolio
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Title: “Playing Slowly” Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Not Editioned Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Title: Ruth, Amina, and the three Aisha’s play “In and Out” Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Title “Experience” Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Title: school girls crossing river (2) Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Title: “Holiday is Coming.” Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Title: School girls with candles (1) Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Still from “Tatsuniya” video installation at Treehouse, Lagos (2017) Projected on white wall within a room filled with soil and 45 palm trees. Duration of video: 7 minutes Video trailer: https://vimeo.com/357965024
Title: “Tatsuniya” Part 1 Trailer (2017) Duration of video: 7 minutes
This film about student memory in schools in northeast Nigeria explores the relationship between text, audio, moving and still images. It takes place in Shehu Sanda Kyarimi school, Maiduguri featuring current students of the school. The school was attacked by Boko Haram in 2013. As students remember their experiences living at the forefront of the Boko Haram conflict, their stories often sound like a dark folktale somewhere between the real and the imagined. The video in its non- linear and disjointed sequence mimics the sonic and visual rhythms of this collective memory and touches upon themes of youthfulness, innocence and play. “Tatsuniya” means a fable, short story or riddle in the Hausa language.
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Still from “Tatsuniya” video installation at Treehouse, Lagos (2017) Projected on white wall within a room filled with soil and 45 palm trees. Duration of video: 7 minutes Video trailer: https://vimeo.com/357965024
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Still from “Tatsuniya” video installation at Treehouse, Lagos (2017) Projected on white wall within a room filled with soil and 45 palm trees. Duration of video: 7 minutes Video trailer: https://vimeo.com/357965024
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Title: “Goodbye students” Series: Tatsuniya (2017) Dimensions: 68.5 cm x 101.5 cm Not Editioned Materials: Digital print on archival paper
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Installation shot of Tatsuniya at Red Hook labs and Nataal: New African Photography III group exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
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Installation shot of Tatsuniya at Red Hook labs and Nataal: New African Photography III group exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, 2018