Àsìkò takes us through his journey into fine art photography, his inspirations for the Adorned series and his reasons for choosing NFTs as a new voice for his art.

Could you please start by telling us about yourself and what first got you interested in photography?

I call myself a visual artist, who uses photography, mixed media, and film to create narratives about my African culture and heritage. As I grew older, I started to explore who I was as a Nigerian man living in the UK and I use my art to reflect on this exploration. Photography is for me a way to communicate with the world, to celebrate who I am and where I’m from.

Why did you choose fine art photography as a medium of expression for your self-exploration?

I have always been interested in photography since I was a kid, whether it was through collecting photos or taking pictures with my polaroid. Growing up, it was a natural progression to move into fine art photography. However, although it seems to be the foundation of my art, I also work with other mediums, such as painting or films.

Where does this desire to inspire and pass on your cultural heritage to future generations come from?

There are a couple of reasons. I first wanted to talk about my culture from my own point of view. There are all these narratives that you will sometimes see in the news about Africa. It was important for me to take back the stories of Africa and talk about the African narrative from an African perspective.

Living in Nigeria until I was 16 and then moving to the UK, I am a child of both cultures. I have a unique perspective to talk about what I do and who I am. As an African nowadays, I believe it is very important to share the African story in a good light, a light that celebrates African existence.

It is also about creating work for future generations so that they see what it was like to be an African, what it was like to be a person like myself exploring the African culture as an African living in the UK.

So there is this need to preserve the culture through my work but also to tell a different story from the one I’ve seen in the past about the African way of life.

To what extent do you think photography is an efficient medium of expression for your reflection on African identity, culture and heritage?

I do not know if photography is the most effective medium but it is the one that speaks to me the most. Being able to freeze a moment in time has always been a special thing for me since I was a child.

What are your inspirations behind the “Adorned” series and what is your message?

Through the Adorned series, I wish to celebrate both African women and the African culture. It is an homage to the women in my life. Growing up, my mother was a powerful and strong matriarch. Being raised by such a powerful woman strongly influenced my artistic creations.

When I go back to Nigeria, women are not treated well and usually considered as second-class citizens. They are not given as much chances as men. So with the Adorned series, I am not only celebrating women but also femininity and liberation.

How does your representation of the African woman’s body in the “Adorned” series celebrate African women and African culture?

There is a lot of skin showing. This project celebrates not only femininity but also blackness in a physical, spiritual and metaphorical context. Black skin is beautiful. It is something to be adorned!

The Adorned series started when I was younger. During a cultural celebration, I came across a very tall dark-skinned woman. Her skin was glistening in the sun and this beautiful image stayed in my head ever since. I believe it was the inspiration behind the aesthetics of the series.

Gold is usually present in most of my works due to its spiritual and cultural significance. Like many Nigerian women, my mother kept a lot of gold in all these boxes, reserved to be worn on special occasions. In some sort of way, this stuck with me and strongly inspired the aesthetics of my works. I also used jewelry to celebrate African women as women of power, with axes and amulets, representing strength and royalty in African cultures.

Why did you choose to animate one of the pieces from the Adorned series?

Actually, I have always wanted to bring movement into my artwork. I have always wanted to bring movement into my artwork. It brings photography to life in a very different way and highlights the stories I want to tell. Mixed media came as a result of me wanting to use my hands on a physical photograph and build a story vertically. I do feel photography will always be present in my practice and will always form the foundational basis for my work.

How do you think NFTs can act as a new voice for your art?

NFTs are the future, and not just for art. NFTs are a different and new way of artistic expression. I am used to having my work exposed in a physical gallery. But I believe that NFTs bring a different paradigm. It brings the work to a different set of people. Younger generations are stepping out of the usual ways of collecting and displaying art, with the usual gallery model. We are now moving to virtual spaces and NFTs are the ways to show art in these virtual spaces.

It didn’t make any sense not to visualize my work in that space. This was one of the reasons for creating animations in my works, and this is something that I plan to do with some of my current and future collections as well. I wish to bring them to life in a slightly different way as to how they usually are. In some of my future projects, I am shooting videos on set while taking the photos to already think about the process of creation of the NFT using the video.