Bunmi Agusto
Theatre in the Skies, 2025
Pastel pencil, coloured pencil, ink and acrylic on sanded pastel paper
100 x 71.2 cm
39 3/8 x 28 in (unframed)
105 x 72 x 4 cm
41 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 1 5/8 in (framed)
39 3/8 x 28 in (unframed)
105 x 72 x 4 cm
41 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 1 5/8 in (framed)
BAG 006
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.
"Theatre in the Skies you almost see this manifestation of a cityscape with the cowrie stars in the sky, but you still very much see the full picture of the divine mechanics underpinning it and the curtains as well. In the middle we the breeze block border, which denotes a change in space. Above, the braided hands are somewhere in the spiritual realm, kind of performing this act, but in the physical realm, what we see are these stars hanging down. So, it's like that cropping and also having that shape, if you took half the composition, having that shape of a theater curtain like where you'd ordinarily have the banner at the top, where you have some decoration, like theater where you'd ordinarily not see, the strings and the mechanisms. So yes, it is like an extension of that but without the obscuring."
"Theatre in the Skies you almost see this manifestation of a cityscape with the cowrie stars in the sky, but you still very much see the full picture of the divine mechanics underpinning it and the curtains as well. In the middle we the breeze block border, which denotes a change in space. Above, the braided hands are somewhere in the spiritual realm, kind of performing this act, but in the physical realm, what we see are these stars hanging down. So, it's like that cropping and also having that shape, if you took half the composition, having that shape of a theater curtain like where you'd ordinarily have the banner at the top, where you have some decoration, like theater where you'd ordinarily not see, the strings and the mechanisms. So yes, it is like an extension of that but without the obscuring."
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