By Udemma Chukwuma
Obinna
Adiele, a Nigerian sculptor, builds his portraits from steel wire, and
everything distinctive in his work follows from that choice. Rather than
modelling a surface, he assembles one. Straight, uniform strands are laid side
by side, cut, bent and welded into small woven planes, so each face reads as
basketry given human features. On the cheeks, forehead and neck, the direction
of the strands changes patch by patch, like parquet or plaited raffia, and the
light breaks differently across every facet. Most pieces carry a dark gunmetal
finish, which warms to copper and golden bronze in works such as Tangled in
Tradition and Olileányà.
