EVA OBODO: AND WE HIRED A CARPENTER TO PATCH THE CLOTH

In the works presented in this exhibition, Obodo’s materials and studio process function as metaphors for the lived condition in Africa. He describes his process of stitching, wrapping, and tying as gestures of repairing wounds that history has left open and tying disparate parts together, both materially and symbolically. His approach transforms artistic labor into a meditative practice of restoration, reimagining how broken systems and fractured histories might be held together, even temporarily. He believes that materials possess their own agency and capacity to speak, and by listening to his materials, Obodo allows charcoal to narrate intertwined stories of exploitation, resilience, and hope.

 

The exhibition’s title, And We Hired a Carpenter to Patch the Cloth, crystallizes this philosophy. It evokes the improvisation and irony that define both African social realities and Obodo’s aesthetic language. The absurdity of a carpenter repairing damaged garments reflects the absurdity of systems that no longer function as intended, yet also the ingenuity of those who persist in repairing them.

  

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Eva Obodo focuses on fibre and charcoal as conceptual mediums, creating relief paintings and free standing sculptures that are created from processes of wrapping, tying and bundling. Incorporating discarded materials such as charcoal and jute fibre, Obodo creates visual narratives that evoke the complex socio-political and economic structures that frame contemporary culture.

 

Obodo’s charcoal works reference issues of natural resources and development in Nigeria, while his fibre works utilise nylon threads that are tied, rolled and wrapped to create colorful visual metaphors. Together, they speak to the connections between individuals and their social relations woven against economic and political backgrounds, connected by community, nation and the global economy through the trade of goods and ideas.