Chinze Ojobo, a graduate of fine and applied arts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is a multi-talented artist. To be in full grasp of her profession, she further studied interior designing in the United States of America and also has two postgraduate diplomas in public relations and advertising as well as in business administration.
Chinze specializes in painting with acrylic on jute. Her paintings are usually detailed, highly textured and rich symbolism. Her colours are vibrant and full of energy. Chinze creates water colour paintings and expresses herself on metal and wood making two and three dimensional sculptures. She also explores other ideas like making wrought iron and wooden furniture pieces. Generally her works are eclectic but very well put together. She reveals more about her career in this interview.
What informed your passion for arts?
I realised I love arts from my childhood. As I grew up to secondary school, I was already doing arts. I got admission to study zoology, but half way in studying zoology, I changed to fine and applied arts. My parents knew I loved arts, so they did their best to encourage me.
When I was small, they were buying pens, pencils and other drawing materials for me. Their encouragement helped me a lot.
Is the profession lucrative?
I like doing what I am doing and I enjoy doing it. I do the job and I am getting results. Financially, yes it is rewarding to an extent.
People see your works and buy them. That is why we do exhibitions where people see our works and appreciate them. We also sell the works and make profits. A lot of artists are not business people, and because of that, they make some works and do not sell them. For me, my husband manages the business aspect of my works. Many artists need people to manage the business aspects of their works. My sister also manages some aspects of my business.
In terms of using arts to correct societal abnormalities, how far doyou think you are achieving it?
Well, I think if we keep on doing the same thing and repeating it, one day the listening public will hear our messages. There are works I do to correct these abnormalities. I did one I called ”Educate the Girl-Child”. In that work, the girls wear school uniforms but they are not in school. The other girl is pregnant and carrying a baby in her back. Another girl in the work is blind; she covered the other ear and mouth indicating that she does not want to learn anything except to be second-class citizens – doing all sorts of illicit jobs and so on. Then you see that the girl-child needs education. Each time I exhibit this kind of works, people keep on saying things about it. The press also carries them and people who hear about them, I believe, will one day change their negative beliefs.
What other themes are you projecting?
Ok, I did some works on human trafficking. I tagged it ‘Say no to Slavery’. I donated the work to the museum in Enugu here. I have also had a lecture on it before where I spoke to about 300 teenagers on the dangers of human trafficking so that they will be alert because not
every offer to travel out of the country is genuine. It is sometimes a way of getting them into human trafficking which could be for prostitution or kidney trading and other illegal jobs.
Tell us about exhibitions you have participated locally and internationally?
I have done quite a number of exhibitions. I have done over 58 exhibitions. I participated in the New York Expo, African Arts and Film Festival in California. I have done about two in Bulgaria. I have had like six in Nollywood. There is one they called 40/40 which was organised by a theatre that involved 40 women. There is another one done by the executive producer, Law and Order. There is another one I participated that was done by CCH founder who is a big actress. She acts in Law and Order, and has featured in so many movies. Here in Nigeria, I have exhibited in Abuja and this is my first time in Enugu.
I have done quite a number of them in Lagos. The last one I did last year was called ‘Unfinished Business’. It held in the National Museum, Lagos. It was a solo exhibition. This year I have done about four in Lagos and have just finished one in Abuja before the one we are doing now in Enugu.
Let’s look at the challenges confronting you?
The business part of arts is challenging. The sales are challenging. In other countries, we have people that manage artists. They are not artists but they have a lot of art works they are managing. But in Nigeria, it is not like that. The average artist here does not understand the business aspect of the profession. They believe ‘if my work is N100, 000, just pay me the N100, 000’. Outside the country, it is a different ballgame. The artists and their managers discuss terms, which can be in the ratio of 40/60 or 30/70 depending on the terms. But the most important thing is featuring your works and selling them at exhibitions. It doesn’t work like that here.
How would you advise those that have this passion in Nigeria?
There are a lot of opportunities for artists. Some people work in galleries but there are some galleries you wouldn’t want to work with because they are so slow in selling art works. But there are some arts dealers who specialise in sales, and people know them for that.
Artists may not have all these abilities, because our own job is to sit in one place and produce works. For me I like producing and people help me to put together my works and sell them for me. I will tell a younger person to work with the galleries. Frank Nweke recently told me he wanted to put together an arts exhibition for young people in Enugu. This is good because if you go to Lagos, you will see that the Yoruba are in arts and they appreciate them more than we do, so he wants to put together a number of upcoming artists and showcase them and possibly take them out where people will see their works. It is a fantastic idea because it will be encouraging for the young artists as they will earn money and want to take arts seriously. That is the business part of arts that I was telling you about because Frank Nweke is not an artist. This is what we lack in Nigeria, and I commend Frank for that thought. As you can see, my sister who is a lawyer has been helping out in showcasing my works and likewise my husband. In foreign countries, you will see people who pick up art works and help the artists to sell them online. At the end, they pay up the artists and take their shares, but in Nigeria we don’t really have such packages.
What are the sources of raw materials you use? Are they imported or locally produced?
They are imported, but I don’t import them myself. We buy them from the market. For me, I work with every material I see. Like there is a material I used which was broken into pieces from the day I bought it.
I wanted to pack the pieces and throw them away, but my children were like ‘mummy but you bought these things and they are costly. Why do you want to throw them off?’ I then decided to use them for an art work, which incidentally is exhibited here now.
