KELANI ABASS' SOLO EXHIBITION, IF I CAN SAVE TIME... CONTINUES

Nigerian Artist Kelani Olanrewaju Abass' solo exhibition, If I can save time... continues at CCA, Lagos. On exhibition since the end of October 2016, (official opened on the 19th Nov 2016) this could easily be the longest running contemporary art exhibition in Nigeria totalling 5 months, 150 days, 3600 hours or 216,000 seconds when it comes to an end on 1 April 2017.

It is a pity that exhibitions only last between 3days to maximum 4 weeks here. The average being 2 and at times 3 weeks. In almost all cases this is because artists have to pay hefty rental fees and in most cases sales are done in the first week.

Longevity allows a wide audience to visit and interact with the exhibition. We have had groups such as MBA students from Stanford University, California visiting Lagos, we have had Yabatech students, Federal College of Education, Akoka, as well as students from University of Lagos. Many individuals including international curators and even some collectors. We have had some people come back 2 even 3 times and with each visit there are different readings found in the work. For the artist it has been an enriching experience engaging with the diverse audiences but also engaging his own shifting reactions and readings of the work. For me it has been a luxury to engage notion of temporality through so many different vantage points and has inspired continuing research about time and about painting in the period of the post-medium. One of the recurring statements by the students is that wow I didn't know we can paint differently. But in the 21st century painting shouldn't be limited to oil on canvas and other traditional tools. Kelani is exploring painting beyond the hegemony of oil, watercolour etc and is open to the possibilities it offers.

Haven't seem the exhibition yet? We welcome you over the coming weeks at CCA Lagos There will be a panel discussion exploring Time from different perspectives including from the curatorial, the artistic and the anthropological. More info soon.


Olabisi Silva (The Curator of the Exhition and the founder of CCA Lagos)