L4YER CAKEBy AKIN DISU

An Exhibition of Prints

Arewa textile mills are pleased to collaborate with Akin Disu on the exhibition L4YER CAKE an exhibition of prints with an historical theme .

Working with art makes a brand exciting. The tie between textiles and art is strong in L4YER CAKE. An exhibition of silk screen prints on canvas and paper.

thArewa Textiles Plc was incorporated as a Private Limited Liability Company on 6 April 1963 It came into existence as a joint venture between the Government of northern Nigeria as represented by the New Nigeria Development Company Limited (NNDC) and Overseas Spinning and Investment Company Limited (OSIC) that was made up of nine Japanese spinners, the International Finance Corporation and Thirty three Nominees Company Limited.The company began operations in 1964. Production commenced in April 1965 with baft and white shirting as the principal products later African prints, polyester and dress prints were added. Following changes in fashion trend, Super prints, Java prints, Indigo prints and Real Wax came on stream. Between 1979 and 1983 the company attained envious results and for the first time got the Standard Organisation of Nigeria award for the Super prints. The introduction of Real wax prints in 1995 improved the fortune of the company. The factory sits on 44 acres of land in the Kakuri Industrial Estate of Kaduna South. It is fully integrated (from cotton spinning with an installed capacity of 2.5 million yards of woven textile per month. The business is currently undergoing an overhaul whereby new equipment and new products are being introduced. The collaboration between Arewa Textile Mills and Akintunde Disu opens up new vistas on the question of how artists can make art that is not just self-referential but in contact with realities like factories or schoolsIt is a key point of contemporary research, that however also requires enlightened managers to pursue.

In Europe, fashion and art education often blend together , It is essential that we develop and strengthen our local economy by expanding the scope of available opportunities for the young in society.

Arewa are proud of their Heritage and excited to be at the fore front once again of an industry that has far reaching implications for the provision of jobs and the creating of a local ecosystem of small and medium enterprise. In our own little way helping to further the development of this great Nation .The historical references of the show are noteworthy as we are all united under this proud and great country Nigeria.

As a Manufacturer of the fabric that underpins the fashion world we are aware that the fashion world approaches art with great sympathy and respect, People who make clothes understand what it's like to be an artist. There's great pressure to have everything sell or out the door.It is important we have more people attracted to the brand, so we are taking the route of social responsibility, the environment and support of the arts .

Dr Nemile AchimoguCEO Arewa Textile Mills PLC

thTuesday 4 of November Opening and Private view by Royal command His Royal Majesty Oba Abiola Oniru special guest His Excellency Chief Ernest Shonekan GCFR CBE

thWednesday 5 of November Students workshop

thThursday 6 of November Private Viewing

thFriday 7 of November Opening Cocktails

thSunday 9 of November Closing Party Hosted By ZEGNA and Laurent Perrier Champagne

PROGRAMME

Didi Museum is honoured to welcome Artist Akin Disu for his first solo exhibition.The show features Akin's

trademark large format screen printed canvases in acrylic and spray paint, the largest measuring six feet high

by five feet wide, and a number of hand finished prints on card.

Mr Disu,has honed his own form of graffiti-influenced graphic expressionist art over the past decade His lavish canvases, show seemingly effortless synchronizations of patterns prints and painting style, his coherent compositions are things of beauty that can be marvelled at on a purely aesthetic level.

“In terms of form, I absorb everything I admire,” explains the artist “From Mbari Mbayo-Osogbo to Japanese woodcut prints, early comics,pop art and concept artwork for science fiction movies.” However, behind deftly assembled colour palettes a voracious mind and an avid imagination work in tandem to portray a complex vision. Like the finest instrumental electronic music, the canvases and their vernacular titles slam human perception into overdrive – bridging the gulf of comprehension between the average Western metropolitan experience and the all-too-threatening issues of loss of identity we as a young Nigerian generation are only just beginning to confront.

“ Historical references are perhaps the most regular theme in my work,” says Disu, “not just History alone, but that which seems to thread through modern society.” To the viewer, the repetitive iconic forms looming out o f D i su ' s c o m p o s i t i o n s c o u l d r e p r e s e n t r a m p a n t emotional aggression, the overlooked subtleties of a h y p o c r i t i c a l s o c i a l democracy, or indeed the ar t i f ic ia l scarc i ty that provides the ichorous fuel to keep our modern world turning. “My paintings are ladders from the past to the future,” continues Disu, “I suppose I'm processing a fear of the days to come when we have lost our history annihi lated our culture and done away with a sense of who we are. It's diff icult to be optimistic when wars of resources are going on, while the peoples creativity is oppressed by mundane needs of survival in a city that is struggling to come into its own while its rich and febrile character is neglected. Moreover, I can't see any way out either.”

The hera ld s o f D i su ' s spurious new age are c y b e r n e t i c k r a k e n , champions of history and ushers of multiplicity. Their forms are often visible in the artist's portrait-format silk screen prints, to anyone with an overactive imagination or a doyenne of dystopian West African history. His Lagos Series is inspired by the thought of epic conflicts between our colonial masters and the un resolved damage to our psyche, the possibilities of a neocolonial race that transcends boundaries, each trapped in an ever repeating matrix a metaphor for individualism's unseemly scramble. A people with out a sense of history culture or character exist for what ? “All that crap we've hoarded and accumulated, will we be buried with it like the tribal chiefs of o l d w e r e b u r i e d w i t h t h e i r t r e a s u r e s ? ” s a y s t h e a r t i s t ,“Archaeologists in eons to come will find us very confusing” In this way Disu's ambitious works depict the Lagos layers of the exhibition's name, as we all scrap in this florid muck for the sake of a legacy like that of the millennia-old funeral mask of Queen Idia trapped in a constantly revolving series of high profile exhibitions permanently winking at us from beyond the grave, is it possible there can only be one Legacy that of life.

What delineates Disu though is his use of aesthetic beauty, however transcendent, to represent this vision. This may be a shocking melodrama, but it grips the imagination with the ingenuity of the master storyteller, the wit of the court jester, and the bombast of the prodigal composer.

Cee Jay JibunohCurator

AKINTUNDE DISU

I have been on a journey to find my method. I believe in the power of art to lift a society and inspire generations, the importance of art in business commerce and society in general. We are remembered as a nation by the art we produce and judged on this basis by civilisations to come. Art should delight educate and inspire children, this is its power. Story telling is my mission, the transfer of my understanding of my people by art. My Method is a blend of screen printing and mix media delivered on canvas and paper. The process a collaborative highly conceptualised form of pop art delivering history in a modern stylistic and abstract way. I weave many popular stories into my work creating conversational pieces which are pleasing to the eye and arresting to look at. Their initial simplicity giving way to a complexity which draws in the viewer and holds him captive and inquisitive.

For my first Solo show I have created a series of prints based on my personal history and popular culture The journey began with my mastering of the art of screen printing by creating a series of multi coloured prints of a mask of Queen Idia .I am interested in shared experiences, popular art and a common identity My Hero's and masters on whose shoulders I stand are Bruce Onoprakpeya, Andy Warhol and Sol Lewitt they have been my inspiration and tutors

Enquirys akin@designanddevelopmentassociates.com08071541772

British artist Richard Hamilton described pop art as "popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business.

kintunde is a man of Amany parts . Chemist , urbanist, social

engineer speaker, sports man entrepreneur. Short listed for the National portrait gallery -Bp Portrait award 1986 in recent years he has exhibited twice before in major combined shows at the Lagos International Art Expo , National Museum Onikan. 2009 /2012 this is his first solo exhibition.

ALL I NEED AREPALM TREES AND

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Layer Cake is influenced externally by, Portuguese tiles, Middle eastern descriptive art, Brit Art culture. The Pop art movements. Internally its influences are the history of Nigeria, its arts and cultural references.

Layer CakeA trip through history in search of the separate layers of shared identity, providing unity through a shared common visual archive, Finding a common ground.

Layer Cake, A collaborative approach to creating a new social language for the arts. A language that compliments the city's past and encompasses the future.

Layer Cake, is of the city and the inhabitants our needs at this present time, to be united. Its about social change, communal property, shared experiences, popular culture .

Akintunde Disu with HRM Oba Idowu Abiodun Oniru

High Chief Akin Disu & HRH Erelu Abiola Dosunmu

HRH Erelu Abiola Dosunmu

Chief Mrs Afolabi & Chief Mrs Shonekan

Mrs Ogunbiyi

Prof. Ebun Clark Prof. J.P.Clark

Mrs Rose Danmole & Mr Tunde Ilevbare (right)Chief Dr. Newton Jibunoh

Akintunde Disu with Tajudeen Sowole (Guardian Newspaper)

Mrs Tope Edu (Zegna)

Mr Bolaji DisuMarco Garcia

( Aero Bombardier)

Mr Kofo Majekodunmi Mrs Bolanle Austin-Peters(Terra Culture)

Mr Kunle Tinubu Dr. Disu

Mr Haresh G. Aswani (Tolaram Group) & Olu Amoda

Akintunde Disu with Mr Ladele Olagbaju

Mr Tunde Disu (CEO Lagbus)

Mr & Mrs Deji West Babalola Disu & Ore Disu

Mrs Enitan RewaneTannaz Banham (Lost in Lagos)

Student Methodist BoysHigh School

Student Holy ChildGirls School

Students at the Exhibition

Prof. Theo Ogunbiyi with Akintunde Disu

Toyin Odulate

Kareem Bakare Otunba Dotun Olakunri

Mrs Lonpe Atunrase Olatoun Williams

Toyosi Olatunji Nnenna Onyewuchi

Royal Guests of Honour

Hugh Thorley with Akintunde Disu

HRH Princess Erelu Dosunmu & Chief Mrs Shonekan

Mrs Stella OguineMr Ewuosho

(Nigeria Stock Exchange)

Mr Akintunde Williams China

D.J Browne (Igroove Radio) Chuka Ihonor

Rich Tanksley (MD Seedstars Africa) & Geraldine Dion

You can view a video of the making of the show here – http://youtu.be/Rsz0meKN0wm

more in formation is available on our facebook page – http://bit.ly/L4YERCAKE71114

British artist Richard Hamilton described pop art as "popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business

I thank you for coming , I hope you enjoy the show its a once in a life time opportunity to view the complete series before they go into private collections

“In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people” Edward hopper

All works are hand finished and therefore each is unique in its own way

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. ~ Jackson Pollock

Contact information Tel 08033006319email , akintundedisu@yahoo.com akin@designanddevelopmentassociates.com

The first King of Lagos was Oba Ado the son of Prince Ashipa of the Kingdom of Benin. Being a Prince of Benin he understood the craftmanship of statehood and the importance of this. He would form the kingdom of Lagos with the help of the council of “white cap chiefs” the Idejos He had three children two male Gabbaro, Akinsemoyin and a female Kuti .

His sons would go on to rule Lagos , but both of them had no male heirs and before he died Oba Akinsemoyin would confer on his sister the title Erelu and ask that her kids should rule Lagos.Erelu Kuti would sit as Regent until her son Ologun Kutere would be Crowned the fourth King of Lagos . The Erelu of Lagos serves as Regent between the death and coronation of the Kings of Lagos till this present day.The title Erelu is similar to that of Queen Mother “Eguae Iyoba” in Benin the first Queen Mother was

thQueen Idia the mother of King Esigie the 16 King of Benin

In 1851 a british naval expedition would enter the bay of Lagos bomb it to submission depose the King Oba Kosoko and annex the Kingdom in the name of Queen Victoria . Ending slavery . In 1861 Oba Dosunmu would sign a treaty with the British. Lagos became a crown colony . The treaty allowed for indirect rule, The Kings of Lagos and council of chiefs would retain their status and handle the affairs of the people .This treaty would save us from the terrible oppression of direct rule suffered by many other African colonies

In 1897 the British would send a punitive expedition to raze the ancient kingdom of Benin after the King of Benin refused to entertain the British advances to annex It .The city was looted and demolished the King Oba Ovonramwen was deposed and the inhabitants moved to a new settlement 30km away modern day Benin. The jungle would take over and the only sign of this great city is from space where the indentation of the great moat which surrounded it can be seen.

In 1977 Lagos would play host to FESTAC a festival of arts and culture . At the National theatre a building set in a moat . The funeral mask of Queen Idia would be the Logo for the festival . The rich history of the people of Benin would once again be in the spotlight their dignity restored by the impressive collection of art showcasing their rich traditions.

Akintunde Disu

A generation which ignores history has no past and no future. - Robert Heinlein

LAGOS 1 YEOBA

ye obaimage

Behind the jetty Legend has it that as long as the people of Lagos do not turn a blindeye to the sea, Lagos will be proud.

The Eyo masqurade a symbol of the city is held at the demise of a great son or daughter it symbolises the coming together as one to stand in unity as individual families united by the assurance of a better future . It captures the “just do it “ attitude of the people of Lagos and their joyous nature with its greeting “I celebrate you , I celebrate myself “The sea, the light on the lagoon, fish scales ,the lights at night when the city is lit.

Lagos the city of EYO of commerce and prosperity ,all Gold and silver, “just do it” Lagos , silver scales and Jedi knights , entrepreneurial Lagos of the people. The ingenuity of Eyingbeti the city with no pity.

Bi oju o bati eyingbeti,oju oni ti Eko ,Ipinle Eko o. ni Baje oo

Akintunde Disu

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. - Aristotle

LAGOS 2 EYINGBETI

The Idejos are the Dukes of Lagos ,Yoruba Nobility the Land Owners of Eko the original name of the people of the area around the Lagoon. Their estates are spread around the Lagoon which would inspire the Portuguese to name the area Lagos . The Portuguese arrived in the sixteenth century and sailed through the bay of Lagos into the Lagoon surrounded by well tended plantations of palms and pepper from which the vast wealth of the Dukes were derived.

The Portuguese would establish a trading station at Epe east of the Lagoon the first administrative capital of Lagos and Ejinrin where the first post office in Nigeria would be erected The trade was mainly palm produce pepper and spices smoked fish and dried shrimps which in the past was destined for the trans Sahara trade .

The Dukes of the Lagoon, Yoruba nobility sit in a plethora of golden pennies. The red and green of the Portugese who gave the city its modern name is brought to play against a back ground of the petrol blue of the Lagoon.The colour red a representation of the wealth of the fruits of the palm and our famous pepper crop ,The green for land and enterprise, the blue lagoon, and Multiplicity of chiefs for representational government . In Lagos the heavens shine down on the fertile green of great Nigeria

Akintunde Disu

“In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people” Edward hopper

LAGOS 3 IDEJO

Golden Caravans from the North bring knowledge of ancient kingdoms from the ivory towers of Timbuktu. New ideology connecting worlds hither to unknown. The River Dankolo springs in Guinea at the foot hills of the Futa Jallon highlands turning its back on the Atlantic it flows north to form the mighty river Niger, to see the Sahara, and to meet the ocean in the grand Niger Delta

It gives rise to the Dankolo tribe in Mali ,the southern most station of the Trans Sahara trade. Anchoring this trade with produce from the forests of West Africa Salt ,Pepper, Ivory, and Gold . In 1324 Mansa Musa the King of Mali went on a pilgrimage to mecca he took with him a retinue of 30,000 men and so much gold they would cause an inflation of the economys from Egypt to Arabia which would last for 30 years

The Dankolo's travelled on the river till it forms the mighty Niger Delta bringing with them wealth, enlightenment, trade, Islam, the spirit of adventure. Its many tributaries make up a myriad of rivers in Nigeria including the mighty Benue, Sokoto, Kaduna, and Anambra

In Lagos they will trade our pepper oil and spices with time they brought literacy and Islam to the throne of Lagos their military prowess will help us gain a bargaining advantage . With the help of Oshodi Tapa one of the Okolos, we will ground a frigate of the British Navy in the 1851 bombardment of the bay of Lagos

Due to their love of knowledge and innovation they were proclaimed apostates and persecuted out of Timbuktu by the Jihadists they will gain a modicum of revenge when they were recruited by the British to halt the Jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio in 1804

Akintunde Disu

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. ~ Jackson Pollock

LAGOS 4 DANKOLO

CATALOGUE The exhibition is made up of 4 sets of Prints on canvas approximately 6 x5 ft in size.

2x Lagos 1 YeOba green base Silk screen print on canvas hand finished with neon and glitter 61”x 74.5”

Acid free cardgreen baseA limited edition 10 prints of each set size 110x70 cm.A limited edition 15 prints of each set at 80 x 60 cm.

2x Lagos 2 Eyingbeti green base Silk screen print on canvas hand finished with neon and glitter 74”x 58”

Acid free cardgreen baseA limited edition 10 prints of each set size 110x70 cm.A limited edition 15 prints of each set at 80 x 60 cm.

2x Lagos 3 IdejoYellow base Silk screen print on canvas hand finished with neon and glitter 60”x 73.7”

Acid free cardYellow baseA limited edition 10 prints of each set size 110x70 cm.A limited edition 15 prints of each set at 80 x 60 cm.

2x Lagos 4 DankoloSilver base Silk screen print on canvas 73.5”x 60”

Acid free cardSilver chrome baseA limited edition 10 prints of each set size 110x70 cm.A limited edition 15 prints of each set at 80 x 60 cm.

My Idea is to create a portfolio of work that is popular and of our time. The pieces illustrate the dynamics

of 'EKO' bridging history with modern times and creating a data base of images that can be used commercially.

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