Ethereal Beauty (2017) by Nnenna Okore

Part 1: 

Born in Australia and raised in Nigeria, Nnenna Okore investigates the transience of vulnerability channeled through abstraction and the terrestrial interconnected systems of existence. Through installations, sculpture, photography, video and dance/performance, Nnenna addresses the ephemeral attributes that exist within the corporeal structures of our environment. She is a professor of Art at Chicago North Park University where she sits as chair of the Art department, teaching courses in Art Theory and Sculptural Practices. 

As I begin my interview with Nnenna Okore, I take instant note of her meticulous attention to detail personified in her carefully formed responses and analytic reflections. This introspection is a driving force of nature within her personal and creative process. 

For Nnenna the visual, social, physiological and environmental, converge to a point of ubiquitous contingency shaped by African ontological and ideological influence. She states: 

Nnenna Okore: I tend to see my materials as co-collaborators, co-agents or co-actants in my process, and therefore I treat them with a lot of respect. Coming from an African perspective, all objects have an inherent power or energy force. I’m constantly deferring to the material and trying to perceive by listening or, really spiritually engaging with the material to see where it wants me to go. 

The instinct for me is to not start something without actually thinking about what it has the capacity to do, or thinking about what it really is saying about itself. A common instinctive attitude when material behaves on its own terms is to express frustration and maybe even change directions altogether, or try to force it to do that particular thing. For me, the instinct is to say, okay, this is where it wants to go. And so my material engagements typically are very mutual, give-and-take types of relationships. 

This process of symbiotic divination deeply rooted in respect and reciprocity is fascinating. It is apparent that Nnenna’s visual philosophy and emphasis on listening to and spiritually engaging with materials to discern their potential directions, reflects a profound sensitivity to her corresponding environments. She’s tapping into deeper currents of creativity and intuition. Her intrinsic value of fluidity within material possibilities serves as fertile ground for her artistic expansion and discovery. By allowing her materials to guide her creative process and being open to their suggestions, Nnenna creates a dynamic and synergistic relationship that fosters mutual exchange and exploration. This approach not only enriches her practice but also opens up new possibilities and perspectives, especially when inviting others to engage with the materials alongside her. 

Ano-N’ime-Ofu (2015) by Nnenna Okore

N: There are benefits to bringing others or their voices into the material practice just because it expands, rather than contracts other possibilities. When I invite people to come and engage with the material, I’m highly aware that it might take me in a different direction. For example, ways of creation I haven’t ever considered before that suddenly become alive and aligned with how I create, and the ways I derive something from that interaction. 

Our conversation transitions to Nnenna’s overall experience and corresponding shifts in her practice during her time as a Programs Fellow at Threewalls. She explains to me how Threewalls highlighted a transformative shift in her perception of research, one that evolved from an informative tool, to a deeply integrated aspect of her creative process. For Nnenna, research served as a means to inform her artistic endeavors, Threewalls inspired her to further incorporate community engagement and human connection into her research methodology. 

N: The directors at Threewalls challenged me to find a core relationship between the research even more so than how I saw it in the past. In research, you’re trying to come up with some interesting mechanisms for engaging your art so you do all of these readings, or engage in different artistic practices to kind of position yourself, and that’s a different kind of research. But when I engaged with Threewalls, especially as a research artist, I found that they allowed me to layer on one more experience in the process— the community experience—and use that as a way to speak to my process. I got exposed to so many different people within the community. This exposure really pushed us to think about how community can be interwoven within the practice and research. You have to go out there and talk to people, engage with them, learn what matters to them and how that also impacts how you think about your work. So all of those things, I think, were very useful. 

These shifts expanded the vocabulary in my language and way of thinking through my practice, as something that operated not only socially engaging, but as something that involved an action kind of art practice. The human connection within this process resulted in new ways of researching and understanding art. I think that was the shift when I started working with Threewalls, to think about research differently. 

This enriching exposure to communal bonds promoted by Threewalls motivated Nnenna and her fellow program contributors to think and interact beyond one dimensional social engagements, fostering a deeper understanding of how community involvement can enrich not only the work created, but the minds of others as well. To me, it is very clear that Nnenna’s active engagement with individuals within the community, empathically concentrated through active listening towards their diverse perspectives and concerns, yielded invaluable insight that profoundly influenced her research outcomes and artistic process. 

N: A project I got involved in last year with Threewalls called, Dreaming of a future, really encouraged artists, community practitioners, gallerists, and curators, to think about how we can dream big. How can we dream outside the box? And if we have ambitions, how do we push those ambitions in ways that are very generative and transmitting? I found that to be so liberating to think about what is possible. Like, if you had a grant and those resources to bring those ideas to life, what would that look like? To be allowed to be brave, not be afraid of whether the work is gonna sell. Because, of course, in this economy you think about those things. You think about, how am I gonna survive? [Threewalls] provides you with financial support, for you to know that you have a living step. And they provide you with the materials, support, everything. So you have this sense of freedom to think outside the box and to really explore passions that you would typically not want to pursue because of fears of investing in what might not produce any kind of emotional returns or otherwise.

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Nnenna Okore Projects and Bioplastics

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• Nnenna Okore Projects and Bioplastics