Bunmi Agusto
Behind the Night’s Cloak, 2025
Pastel pencil, coloured pencil, ink and acrylic on sanded pastel paper
53.5 x 68.5 cm
21 x 27 in (unframed)
56 x 70 x 4 cm
22 x 27 1/2 x 1 5/8 in (framed)
21 x 27 in (unframed)
56 x 70 x 4 cm
22 x 27 1/2 x 1 5/8 in (framed)
BAG 004
Tales by Moonlight is a body of work that highlights African nighttime oral tradition and situates my world-building practice in that lineage. There are several nods to theatre, set design...
Tales by Moonlight is a body of work that highlights African nighttime oral tradition and situates my world-building practice in that lineage. There are several nods to theatre, set design and puppeteering, thus transforming the landscape into a set. Human figures dye the night sky curtain indigo using ancient dyeing practices from Northern Nigeria. Cowrie shells are used to adorn this curtain of the night sky as stars. Shape-shifting printed ghosts help support this meta world-building by helping transport materials and preparing the curtain.
"The way I depict the spiritual realm in my work is that above the physical realm, it's separated by a veil of water, and the palm trees act as axis mundi the secret cosmic bridges between heaven and earth. Whenever you see a palm tree poking out of water in my work, that's how you know you're in the spiritual realm. The water and the palm trees are very much based and configured, from my readings of Yoruba mythology, so it's very much a tropical remediation of what the afterlife looks like. Behind the Night's Cloak, we see two spiritual beings floating through with calabashes on their heads. There's something inside the calabashes that they're transporting. And here it's almost like we're witnessing the assembly line for the production of something. We see these two spiritual beings flying through the night cloak, flying behind the curtain. The curtain acts like a theatre curtain. So, this is basically us going behind the scenes."
"The way I depict the spiritual realm in my work is that above the physical realm, it's separated by a veil of water, and the palm trees act as axis mundi the secret cosmic bridges between heaven and earth. Whenever you see a palm tree poking out of water in my work, that's how you know you're in the spiritual realm. The water and the palm trees are very much based and configured, from my readings of Yoruba mythology, so it's very much a tropical remediation of what the afterlife looks like. Behind the Night's Cloak, we see two spiritual beings floating through with calabashes on their heads. There's something inside the calabashes that they're transporting. And here it's almost like we're witnessing the assembly line for the production of something. We see these two spiritual beings flying through the night cloak, flying behind the curtain. The curtain acts like a theatre curtain. So, this is basically us going behind the scenes."
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