Killing Fields and a Memorial: Two Installations

Abstract

This paper reports two assemblages that were made and displayed by Ashiedu Ogboli. Killing Fields and A Memorial assemblages were executed over a period of four years and were exhibited as part of a Solo Exhibition entitled Sambisa Forest which opened on December 6^th and closed on 22^nd December 2017 at the Fine Arts Gallery Department of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. The author explores the significance of the assemblages and their intrinsic and extrinsic value.

Keywords:

Boko Haram: A Terrorist organization founded on the premise that Western Education and culture are un-Islamic. The group has waged a war of attrition against the Nigerian state since 2009. The resulting insurgency has led to loss of at least twenty thousand human lives and unmeasurable economic, socio-cultural damage. The insurgency has spilled into the neighbouring states of Chad, Cameroon and Niger, where similar groups have been known to exist in a close or loose association.

Sambisa Forest: A nature is reserve where Boko Haram group has made a redoubt and where they have been suspected to keep captives. Folk lore of kanuri people associate Sambisa Forest with natural and mythical hazards: a thicks and complex place. Zambisande Kantaram = our zambisa of mosquitoes.

Assemblage: A work of art executed by composing related and unrelated materials together.

Environment: The material space inhabited by human beings, flora and fauna.

Installation: A finished assemblage that is put together to be viewed or kept in a permanent or semi permanent display.

Zawama: A sculpted wooden form whose aim is for drying caps. Zawama is usually made with African hardwoods, some of which may be endangered.