Ayomide Tejuoso
https://ayomidetejuoso.com/
https://www.instagram.com/plantationofficial/
https://www.tiktok.com/@bitterplantains
Tejuosoayomide@gmail.com
+41782445302
Photography, film, and installation body of work. Featured on the cover of the New Currency 2023 "Bodies" Edition, and also featured in the New Currency 2023 "Bodies" Edition. Shortlisted for the 2022 Getxophoto Festival, exhibited in the Affinity Gallery 2022 "It's All in Me" group exhibition, and featured in the Mulieris Magazine 2022 edition.
"My Sin is Blue" is a scattered reflection of my desperation for Nigeria. Stuck in France, alone in the West, I slowly began to lose my mind. Facing relentless anti-blackness and unable to react, I found joy in deconstructing the black image and listening to the words of Arthur Jafa, Kahlil Joseph, and Deana Lawson. I would watch for hours as Arthur Jafa spoke on the black church as an outstanding visual plane and the urgency of creating compilations of the black disposition - black visual culture (from pop culture, Nollywood, to Instagram compilations, and black music). I became obsessed with Deana Lawson's search for the sacred and profane in her images, with each pose and element telling a tale of the black spirit - diasporic by force (the transatlantic slave trade and modern-day immigration triggered by proxy wars) and relentless for survival. In this, I would photograph every single black person I saw in France and the United Kingdom, going to their homes and creating visual worlds with their forms. In efforts to understand the black image - my black image - I would create installations, video stills, and image transfer pieces, also attempting to replicate my diasporic and ever-transcending nature.
Digital photography, film, mixed media, and installation.
Blue dust / Yellow doom (2022)
Birthed from my return home to Lagos, Nigeria, "Blue dust, yellow doom" is a visual tale of Lagos and my return to my mother's arms. Returning to the yellow, bluedusted skies of Lagos, I found peace and happiness, finally away from the perils of anti-blackness - the institutions of the West. Shaped by rich, vibrant, striking, and slow shutter speed portraits of horse riders, boys, women, and Cele pastors (Celestial Church Nigeria), the project is an archive of the passing black Nigerian body - our wandering spirits, searching for love, desperate for stability, hustling to exist. In many ways, this project is a scattered manifestation of my mind and relationship with Nigeria. Each subject holding a Nigerian football, they tell a tale of nationalism but anger - victims of neo-colonialism, they are forced to struggle, to scream, and hyperperform. Hyper-aware of death (from Boko Haram to border bandits), survival is necessary, the White God is necessary - believing that our chants and prayers will change the daily violence. Referencing the groundbreaking aesthetics of Vivianne Sassen, Liz Johnson Artur, Ib Kamara, and Kristin Lee Moolman, a colorful and hyperconstructed aesthetic is employed - each pose is intentional, curious, but playful. This project was selected for the Photo Vogue Festival Voice NFT Residency exhibition 2022, shortlisted in the PH Museum Women Photographers Grant 2022, exhibited in the Mulieris Magazine Dreamtigers exhibition 2023; featured in the Homeschool Magazine 2024 and New Currency Magazine 2023 editions.
Digital Photography, film, installation, and mixed media.