Artist in conversation: FADERERA WAHAB
Fadérera Wahab is an innovative and diverse artist born in the vibrant city of Lagos, Nigeria. Now based in Bournemouth, her artistry unfolds through a broad spectrum of media, including fabric works, printmaking, oil and acrylic paints, and handmade paper.
Fadérera's work is more than just a visual treat; it's an invitation to view the world from her perspective. Each piece begins with a detailed background that sets the stage for the figure to be developed, reflecting her belief that context is as significant as the subject itself. This approach results in artworks that are richly layered and deeply meaningful.
Currently, Fadérera is channeling her creative energy into photography. Her latest pieces offer a subtle yet poignant exploration of her journey into adulthood, capturing the shifts in her ideologies about enjoyment and presence. She finds beauty and satisfaction in the mundane, celebrating everyday objects, locations, and routines that often go unnoticed but form the essence of our daily lives.
Fadérera Wahab's art is a testament to her talent and her keen eye for detail. It serves as a gentle reminder to appreciate the ordinary and find joy in the present moment. Her work continues to inspire, provoke thought, and challenge perceptions, making her a remarkable figure in the contemporary art scene.
What initially inspired you to become an artist, and how did you develop your unique style?
I can’t say for sure why I was inspired to be an artist, but it’s something that I’ve been doing since I was as young as I can remember, and ultimately when I questioned myself on what it was that I could see myself doing even until death, the answer for me was art. In terms of my art style, I don’t know if I can say that I have a singular one in a weird sense, my art style is constantly changing and evolving, and at times, it changes based on the media that I am using, so the way I paint with watercolour may be different from the way my printmaking looks. Nonetheless, with my multiple art styles, I always ask God to guide my hand, and just flow with whatever image he gives me, developing it based on my own emotions and the materials that I feel like working with.
In terms of subject matter, what themes or motifs do you frequently explore in your work, and what draws you to these topics?
Regarding the subject matter in my works, it’s very diverse, one day I may explore the nature of my surrounding spiritual environment and how it is translated into my views of reality, and another day, I may focus on moments of stillness in my daily life, but I find that I typically draw inspiration from things prevalent in my daily life. Nonetheless, presently a recurring motif in my works are flowers and plants, as I find that it gives me a sense of home and remembrance of my mother’s ever-growing garden in Lagos, therefore becoming a reference to my remembrance of her. From there, the floral motif has also branched off into research around the meanings of different flowers and learning how to use them to speak withing speaking in my works.
Can you discuss a specific piece or project that challenged you as an artist, and how you overcome those challenges?
As of recently, a work that challenged me was a painting that I did titled, “Overripe Soursop and the Inevitable End”. It was a painting that truthfully took me over a year to finish, and midway into finishing it I felt a bit discouraged because of the amount of time that it was taking, although, there were many points throughout the entirety of the work were I could have concluded it as resolved, but I wanted to get it to the point of my satisfaction, which meant developing it some months and not even touching it other months, and ultimately I had to come to terms with working at a more long-term pace to develop certain ideas.
Your approach of building up the background surrounding a figure before developing the figure itself is truly intriguing. Could you share more about the significance of this process in your artwork? How does it contribute to conveying your message or capturing the essence of the world as you see it?
I think my art process of background development first is something that developed a bit unconsciously at first, because it mostly started with me thinking that there was too much space on a canvas for the only outstanding thing on it to be the figure. Later on, the more this technique evolved, I discovered the ability to add character defining objects into these backgrounds, and this discovery repeatedly gives me room to detail a character without having to add to them directly. It also gives me many opportunities to incorporate motifs common in my daily life into my paintings, giving subtle nuances that always point back to me as the artist.
We would love to learn more about your photography pieces and how they capture these themes with subtlety. What inspired you to delve into this particular subject matter? And how do you hope viewers will connect with and interpret the emotions and ideas conveyed through your photographs?
I feel that my photography especially focuses on subject matters surrounding nostalgia and time possibly even more than some of my other art forms, because it gives me a means to present these thoughts and emotions more spontaneously, in the sense that I can record the feeling as soon as it comes to me, as is the nature of photography in contrast to painting. As expected however, it is truly more subtle in expression as I am a bit limited with my use of colour and pattern with photography, but I like the nature of the shot, where you usually either have it, or you don’t, even more so because I rarely edit my pictures. Notwithstanding, I can’t say for sure yet how I want people to receive my photography work, but I hope it would give them a moment of pause and self-assessment.
How do you stay connected with other artists and keep up with new developments and trends in the art world?
Naturally I’m still in art school so it’s relatively easy to stay in contact with artist as I’m currently surrounded by them, but that’s a question I’ll have to reassess when I’m done with school, and as for staying current with trends in the art world, I don’t really bother trying to keep up with them, as I don’t think I’m interested in confining my art style, which I want to have the potential to outlast my life-span, to a trend which just comes and goes with time.
How do you incorporate feedback from critics and audiences into your artistic practice, and how do you balance this feedback with your own artistic intuition?
I very rarely incorporate any external feedback into my work unless it falls in line with the vision for the work that I already have in mind. I think I can be somewhat lenient with taking advice concerning other parts of my life, but my art space is very sacred to me, so while I leave room to consider external advice, I usually just ask God to guide my hand, and flow with whatever vision He gives me.
How do you stay motivated and inspired despite any setbacks or creative blocks you may encounter?
For creative blocks, I’ve just stopped trying to force the inspiration to come, so if I feel like I don’t know the next step for one artwork, I just move to the next artwork, or start working on a new project, and when the vision for the painting I left for a while becomes clearer to me, then I go back to it. Sometimes I also pray for God to show me the full picture of what I need to do, if I feel very stuck.
How do you feel about exhibiting your artworks with The Holy Art Gallery?
I’m excited to be exhibiting my works with The Holy Art Gallery, as I’m a big believer in opportunities for certain seasons that may never come twice, so I see it as I great opportunity not only to strike the iron while it’s hot but as a chance to gather more heat, figuratively speaking.
Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals and aspirations as an artist, and how do you plan to achieve them?
As for my Long-term goals as an artist, I want to exhibit more of my artworks, in all media, and not only focused on my photography, and I would also like to get more work done, whether that is in the form of painting more, sewing more, making more prints, learning more art techniques, and so on, although the latter seems like a more cliché answer. Nonetheless, for the rest of my goals, I’ll discover them with time, and in terms of achieving each goal, I know that naturally, when the time is perfect, I’ll be ready to start exhibiting more varieties of my works. Additionally, to increase my productivity in working, I’ll likely start out by carving out more time in my daily routine to get some work done, no matter how small, and grow from there, as well as keep looking for new opportunities for learning.