Sesu Tilley-Gyado Emerges First At The Grande Finale Of Africa Artists Foundation Organised By National Art Gallery ,Lagos.

Sesu Tilley Gyado has emerged,First position at the Nigeria Art Competition held in Lagos. Few minutes before the announcement of the three winners, the leader of the jury, Prof El Anatsui, in his speech disclosed that the winner was arrived at through “a democratic process”. The votes of the three artists in the jury, he stated, were “overwhelmed” by that of “the non-artists”. 

Sesu Tilley Gyado who came   First position, got N2 million naira; First Runners up, a collaboration of Halima Abubaker and Zemaye Okediji, N1m Naira for Outstanding Concept; and Victoria Udondian’s Arti-tude, N1m for Outstanding Production.
Other members of the jury were Bisi Silva, Oliver Enwonwu, Francois Sastourne, Maki Osakwe, Yasue Maetake, Caline Chagoury, Yvonne Ike, Michelle Okocha and Prof Peju Layiwola.The Project

Below is Sesu Gyado's Project....

First Prize Winner, I-DentitiTrees by Sesu Tilley-Gyado

Project

I explore how ' i-dentiTrees’, information age trees of modern Nigerian cityscapes (Broadcast Masts, Electricity Poles, and Billboards) inform and express Nigerian identities within paradigms of information technology, telecommunications and capitalism.

Medium

Installation: 1 Communications mast (13ftx 3ft), 2 Advertising Billboards (10ftx10ft), 8 interconnected Electricity Poles (9ft).
Materials

Bamboo poles, cables, satellite dish from Nigerian building sites. The billboards depict original; graphic art collages.

'i-dentiTrees'
Broadcasting Mast: Data Exchange.
Symbol of Nigeria’s import of values, goods, skills, foreign religions, information, and commodities (especially refined petroleum products).
Bamboo Electricity Poles:

Echo tribal totem poles, as within Nigeria identity remains tribe-based.
Cables: Transmissions, links.

The role of technology in the interconnectedness of data, values, global culture, people, ideas, networks, places, languages, and currencies in information age Nigeria.
Billboard #1

Collage: ‘We Are What We Consume’

Collage of QR product codes, a cybernetic map of consumerist trends, and words’ Babel’, ‘Babble’, ’Bible’, ‘Buy Bull’ and ‘Bubble’.

The words refer to the universality of commerce (Babel), advertising (Babble), the growing commodification of religious identity (Bible), the over reliance of imported goods (Buy Bull) and the ephemeral nature ‘glocal’ trends and economic memes (Bubble).
Billboard #2

Collage: ‘We Are Our Biometric Identity’

A collage of cybernetic photography of DNA and fingerprints. In today’s information age, individual personal identity is reduced into the smallest units of genetic mapping through biometric identification.
Billboard #3

Collage: We Are Who We Say We Are

A ‘Word Sea’ collage which echoes Michel Foucault’s concept of identity within a 'prison house of language'.

‘Word Sea’ comprised of: phrases and signs heard and found on Nigerian streets URL’s, websites, Bible verses, ID card numbers, bank account numbers, codes, recharge card numbers, qualifications, Profiles.