Taiye Idahor, Living On The Edge And Dying On It, artist at setup, courtesy of the artist 2017.
Taiye Idahor, Living On The Edge And Dying On It, installation view, courtesy of the artist 2017.
Taiye Idahor, Living On The Edge And Dying On It, detail, courtesy of the artist 2017.
Born Lagos, Nigeria (1984), lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria
Living On The Edge And Dying On It 2017
mixed media installation
Courtesy of the artist
Artist’s statement
The concept of living on the edge did not arouse any unusual feeling; instead it seemed rather familiar, like well-known territory, the kind of life one is accustomed to living in Nigeria. My work at the biennial is a site-specific project and is inspired by my visit to the exhibition space which, in itself, is weighted with its own history and character.
The abandoned train shed was alluring with its high, leaking roof, broken and uneven floor, missing walls, abandoned trains and even the filth left behind by the illegal inhabitants living within and around the shed. It invoked a feeling of something lost: a death, as well as a looming presence, a dream. It lent itself to many possibilities of imagination of what it used to stand for and what it has and could become. It is from this imagination, from being immersed within this infinite space, that a memory reoccurs.
In 2015, I created a sculpture titled ‘The day we are born is the day we begin to die’ that dangled between logic and fantasy, a tree and a person merged as one; I wanted to explore the idea of something being born and then move forward to begin a process of dying using steel wool and allowing it go through the process of rusting, a sort of performance. I would be reenacting this sculpture within this space, incorporating elements from it, specifically the metal beams that support the structure. It is a reminder that time is gained, lived and lost, nothing lasts forever, only crumbs of what had been remain. I am imagining that one of those relics is a tree-like web that has been growing there over time. This is what I intend to create at the space.
