Her painting is permanently displayed at the Smithsonian Museum as of 2012, and her work is also part of the collection of the Gallery of African Art and the British Library in London and at Johfrim Art and Design Studio. ĭavies-Okundaye was featured on CNN International's African Voices, which features Africa's most engaging personalities, exploring their lives and passions. Adire pattern motifs were traditionally handed down from mother to daughter, and the designs themselves virtually have not changed in form over time. Davies-Okundaye chooses to continuously reference adire patterns in her artwork because adire is a women's art, and was taught to her by her mother. There is a strong tendency to keep dyeing recipes and methods secret from inquisitive outsiders. "Adire" refers to indigo dye, and "Eleko" refers to the boiled cassava, lime, and alum-resist technique used to create patterns. The freehand dyeing is sometimes known as "Adire Eleko". Adire – that which is tied and dyed – is native to the Southwest region of Nigeria. She hopes to revive the centuries-old tradition and the lives of these women. She teaches the unique techniques of indigo cloth-dyeing (Adire) to rural women at her workshop in south-west Nigeria. ĭavies-Okundaye strives to improve lives of disadvantaged women in Nigeria through art. "Mother of Africa") communicating on ideologies and social norms placed females in constrained positions. Folklore that Davies-Okundaye was exposed to through evening stories spoken by the village elder, addressing social issues centred on the female suffrage, in which Davies-Okundaye uses folklore figures to express her concerts on the female suffering through her batiks that portraying the goddess Osun (i.e. According to Kim Marie Vaz, folklore often intermingles with personal experiences to express disheartening subjects regarding female suffering.
ĭavies-Okundaye's adire and batik textiles use visual themes taken from Yoruba history and mythology, as well as visual themes inspired by her own life experiences and dreams.
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In a video interview published by Nubia Africa, Okundaye states that "school can only teach what they already know." According to a CNBC Africa interview, she trained more than 3,000 young Nigerians for free and she continues to help by funding many poor to establish their small businesses and art workshops in different parts of Nigeria. As art historian John Peffer states, "One thing shared by many of the latest generation of African artists in the diaspora - those who have been successful on the art circuit - is that their work critiques the very burden of representation that is also the condition of their visibility." In her view, the traditional art of Adire Eleko is only possible because of a specific Nigerian heritage of passing knowledge from one generation to the next. įinding that the traditional methods of weaving and dyeing that had been her original inspiration were fading in Nigeria, Davies-Okundaye set about launching a revival of this aspect of Nigerian culture, building art centres offering free courses for young Nigerians to learn traditional arts and crafts.
She is the founder and director of four art centres that offer free training to more than 150 young artists in visual, musical and performing arts, comprising more than 7,000 artworks. She had her first solo exhibition at the Goethe Institute, Lagos, in 1968. Over the past twenty years, Davies-Okundaye has given workshops on traditional Nigerian textiles to audiences in the United States and Europe. Growing up in Osogbo, which is recognized as a major centre for art and culture in Nigeria, young Nike was exposed to the indigo dyeing and adire production that dominated her informal training. She spent part of her early life in Osogbo, Western Nigeria, modern-day Osun State.
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She learned how to use the loom to produce cloth during the time she lived with her great grandmother Ibitola (“Red Woman”). Her parents and great grandmother were musicians and craftspeople, who specialized in the areas of cloth weaving, adire making, indigo dyeing and leather. Nike Okundaye was born in 1951 in Ogidi, Kogi State, in North-Central Nigeria, and was brought up amidst the traditional weaving and dyeing as practised in her home town. She is best known as an artist for her cloth work and embroidery pieces. Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye (born 1951), also known as Nike Okundaye, Nike Twins Seven Seven and Nike Olaniyi, is a Nigerian batik and adire textile designer.
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