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PARTICLES IN MOTION
ADA UDECHUKWU
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A dance of days
where dreams are particles in motion
messengers of yearning
faraway notes
calling in Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
from "Calling" by Ada Udechukwu
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Particles in Motion explores Ada Udechukwu’s connections to her cultural roots. An ode to the elegant and diverse layers of memories both faded and new, from her vibrant visions of growing up in the hills and nature of Enugu and Nsukka to her grasp on her raw emotions towards the journey and events of her life. “A single line… a loaded brush drawn across paper... ink spreading on wet surface." Her art and poetry convey a sense of pure instinct, spontaneity, and unfiltered raw expression of emotions. The rounded forms and patterned, undulating lines, create a universe of emotional connections in which we gently embrace the physical, emotional, and spiritual arrivals and departures of this thing called life.
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"Solitude (2018) is indicative of where she is today with her line, and what work line does presently in her drawing. By using different types of line to depict the figure’s puffy, shut eye and mouth, and folded limbs, Udechukwu achieves a powerful figuration of solitude. She is indisposed to engaging the world through her senses of vision or power of speech, or physical interaction with others."
Chika Okeke-Agulu, MFA, PhD
Professor of African and African Diaspora Art
Princeton University
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When one engages with Ada Udechukwu’s work, one becomes drawn into a complex world of nuance and flow. Her voids speak clearly, while the kaleidoscope of her poems, interwoven with her lyrical lines, demand us to be silent, in order to feel the soft vibration of her artistry.
Udechukwu is an artist whose pen meanders across inner and outer worlds, connecting thoughts, memories, and feelings across patterns, lines, and monochromatic spheres. The fragility of her complex web of expression, draws on decades of life experience, and quietly comes to rest in our consciousness.
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Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, Curator of the exhibition writes that Udechukwu's "writing mirrors the ebb and flow of her forms. She draws inspiration from nature, which reflects the inner joys and turmoil of everyday living. Her words, patterns, and repetitions are rooted in an emotional landscape of tropical and temperate memories. From the dry “riding wind’s breath in curls” (in Harmattan Fires) to the still flow of the ocean, we see an artist in tune with her environment, reflecting its seasonality in her writing"
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"A single line…a loaded brush drawn across paper…ink spreading on wet surface. This initial instinctive spontaneous gesture on blank surface evolves into meditative practice as a drawing or painting progresses. And the original propulsive image of an experience—a person seen, an encounter with a stranger, or perhaps someone I know, or my witness to the social and political landscape that surrounds me—is transformed as I find the story it holds.
Honoring that narrative is crucial, and finding the language to do so, central to my practice as a writer and artist. An important influence on my aesthetic is the traditional Igbo art of uli with its emphasis on brevity of statement, linearity, abstraction, and balancing of positive and negative space in composition."
- Ada Udechukwu
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"Where other artists used their drawing as commentary and critique of Nigerian postcolonial condition, Udechukwu is more introspective, frequently questioning her relationships with her internal and external worlds. In her hands, thus, art (and poetry) are readily available and effective tools of self-analysis and enunciation"
Chika Okeke-Agulu, MFA, PhD
Professor of African and African Diaspora Art
Princeton University
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"In my work space is a presence: whether it is the white of paper or subtle patterning of background areas. And in the interaction of image and space on paper, emotion is central to my examination of memory. It shapes our relationships with ourselves and others, and its contours hold what we will and will not carry."
- Ada Udechukwu
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"In Here Somewhere, Udechukwu’s soothing greens and blues are a strong counter-point to her monochromatic works. She creates color hues, almost like mist covering delicately drawn pen and ink details, making the viewer step closer to appreciate the dexterity of her subtle, veiled message."
Sandra Mbanefo Obiago
Curator
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ada Udechukwu (b. 1960) is an artist and writer. She holds a BA in English and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Bennington College, Bennington Vermont.
She has had several exhibitions of her drawings, paintings and textiles. Her solo exhibitions are: Hand Drawn and Painted Fabrics, Nsukka, Nigeria (1990) and InMidmomenT: lines. spaces. boundaries., Canton, New York (2000). A selection of her joint and group exhibitions include: An exhibition of Marada Design: Featuring Mary Ezewuzie and Ada Udechukwu, Nsukka, Nigeria (1984); Fabric Dimensions: The Art of Ada Udechukwu and Elizabeth Ohene, Enugu, Nigeria (1990); Uli: Different Hands, Different Times, Nsukka, Nigeria (1992); Celebrating Africa [with Olujimi Gureje and Achmet Dizi], Lagos, Nigeria (1993); The Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, Washington, D.C. (1997-98); and Lyrical Lines: The Works of Obiora Udechukwu and Ada Udechukwu, Greensboro, North Carolina (2003). Her work is in private collections in Europe, Nigeria and the United States and in the collection of the Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.
She has published a book of poems, Woman, Me (Bayreuth: Boomerang Press, 1993) and Herero (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1996). Her short stories have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Callaloo and PMS: Poem Memoir Story. In 2007, her story “Night Bus” was shortlisted for The Caine Prize for African Writing. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
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