Courts of Influence Series (Dipytch) Oba Ila-Orangun Print - Limited Edition of 7

This is part of the series of my works exhibited at Tate Britain,London in 2007 as organized by "Imagine Art After" curated by Breda Beban (late sadly) and produced by Index Arts of London, UK. The title of the series is "Courts of Influence, made in 2007. Here is the King of Ìlá Òràngún (or Ila) is an ancient city in Osun State, Nigeria, and the vista of the town from the palace. This project brought into reckoning the question of the role of monarchy if any in modern governance especially in Africa. This project explored the Yoruba nationality which spread beyond Nigeria. Traversing the two countries over weeks, Nigeria and the Republic of Benin were documented. The Kings or Obas were and are first class Kings of the progenitor of the Yoruba race, Oduduwa. Each Oba's portrait is assembled as diptych with a photograph of his domain or his people as the case may be. (The works were made on medium format film camera. Restoration was done on the negatives BUT there is a semblance of nuances of slight shift in colour, that depict classic nature of the medium) ========================