Lila WARRIMOU (MISASO), Odunaigë, mahuva’oje ohu’o sabu deje – Jungle vines, pig’s hoofprints and spots of the wood-boring grub, Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth), 67 x 96cm (irregularDiptych)
Nom’e Javavamu Darugé I’jové (We Dance Our Designs to Life) is fittingly dedicated to the late Dapeni Jonevari (Mokokari), one of the great master painters of the Ömie’s ujawé initiation tattoo designs, who sadly passed away peacefully in her village home in October 2016. Her works in this exhibition represent some of the very last and most significant pieces she produced before her untimely passing. Dapeni’s immense contribution as a pioneering senior artist of the Ömie Artists cooperative from 2004 onwards, played a key role towards the flourishing of this extraordinary barkcloth art movement that we see today.
Highlights of the 31-piece exhibition, the most significant show of 2017 for the artists, will be the finely worked and powerful paintings by the Paramount Chief of Ömie women, Lila Warrimou (Misaso), as well as arresting, minimalist sihoti’e mud-dyed barkcloths by the last two women remaining who create their designs with a unique and ancient sewing technique using bat-wing bones, Sarah Ugibari and Brenda Kesi (Ariré) and of course the mesmerising final works by Dapeni Jonevari (Mokokari).
Venue: ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Old Hill Street Police Station, 140 Hill Street, #01-08, Singapore 179369
When: 4 Oct - 4 Nov 2017,
