Aderemi Adegbite

Aderemi Adegbite

Adegbite in Dakar, Senegal during the Dak'Art Biennale, 2012 by Prof. Awam Amkpa
Born Abdullah Aderemi Adegbite
28 February 1982
Ebute-Metta, Lagos State, Nigeria
Occupation Photographer
Nationality Nigerian
Period 2000–present
Notable works Endless Roads
Notable awards 2012 Global Winner – World Youth Movement for Democracy Photo Contest

Aderemi Adegbite (born 28 February 1982 in Ebute Metta, Lagos, Nigeria) is a photographer, multimedia artist, poet and publisher. He lives and works in a suburb of Lagos, Iwaya, a neighboring community to Makoko.

Early life

Aderemi Adegbite born in Ebute-Metta, Lagos State. His parents are from the same town Inisa in Odo-Otin local government area in Osun State. He discovered photographer and moving images as a means of re-examining himself, his community and the society as pretext of his image. He has since created series of personal projects and also worked on commissioned projects.

After participating in some film productions, as a self-taught artist, he made his first film in 2011 titled Ghettoration,[1] a short documentary film, written, directed and produced by him. Ghettoration which is a coinage from Ghetto and Gyration tells the story of three friends, who live in the same community with the same passion. Ghettoration was nominated for In-Short Film Festival organised by the International Film & Broadcast Academy and Goethe-Institut Nigeria in the same year of production.

Aderemi created and curated Poetry Potter, a monthly live performance project between 2006 and 2010. He ventured into publishing to extend his frontier of literary art promotion and at the end of 2011 he published his first book – a poetry collection: Endless Roads by Ralph Tathagata under Image Books, an imprint of Image & Heritage. In the first quarter of 2013, he released his second poetry publication: Symphony of Becoming by Iquo Eke, and it was on the long list of NLNG Nigerian Prize for Literature same year.

Career

Culture Production career

Aderemi started his artistic career through his involvement in the theatre. He trained with the playwright Lekan Balogun as a "stage hands". With the playhouse - Legendaire Theatre, he gained experiences and established himself as a self-taught Cultural Producer and Arts Manager. He has served in various capacities with different organisations, which rub off on his experience.

As a Cultural Producer/Arts Manager, he has produced and coordinated several arts and literary events which include Poetry Potter, Lagos Poetry Festival, WordSlam, Fashion Revolution and Fashion Revolution Reloaded and P.A.G.E.S.

Literary career

Aderemi became conscious of his literary craftsmanship in 2004 and he started writing plays, poetry and prose but he distinguished himself in 2005 when he took poetry as his genre of interest. The defunct Daily Times Newspapers[2] was the first platform that gave this young Turks an avenue to express his opinion about politics, life, love, death and rebirth. And as a young poet, he published quite a lot of poems on the online poetry platforms and several anthologies, mostly published by the Forward Press, UK.

In 2006, he founded Kowry Kreations Media,[3] a literary and performing art organisation. And under this organisation he created and produced Poetry Potter,[4] a literary and art platform for young and old, which ran from January 2006 till December 2009. He only realised that he could not continue to produce the monthly live-show after four years when he has done all he could to raise fund for the show. He however got some writers backing on the show but the fund was not enough to run the show and that was the reason why he stopped producing Poetry Potter after a solo concert he organised for Aduke Ayobamidele Aladekomo in mid-2010.

Aderemi was invited by the exco of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Lagos Chapter mid-2006 to become the Public Relations Officer and he ran the office effectively under the chairmanship of Folu Agoi for two years- 2006–2008.

Since 2006, Aderemi has contributed to lots of anthologies most of which was published by Anchor Books and PoetryNow both are imprints of Forward Press UK. His other publications have appeared in literary magazines such as Poeticdiversity,[5] Blackbiro, Forwardpress, Anchorbooks, PoetryNow, Blottermagazine, Oneghanaonevoice,[6] Shortpoem,[7] Anchorbooks, PoetryNow, Wisdom of Our Mother,[8] Sentinel Nigeria.[9]

After winning My Backyard Category of The One Minutes African Awards 2011 with his video art titled: Ghetto Games, he was commissioned by the Director of The One Minutes Foundation in 2012 to create a one minute video for the foundation's video art exhibition: Videoooooh Exhibition, which runs during the Olympics in London at the Slade Research Centre, London.

N65

"N65"[10] is the first Solo Exhibition of Aderemi Adegbite. He was tagged Angry Young Man by the director of Goethe-Institut Nigeria,[11] Marc-André Schmachtel in his write-up on the exhibition.

He said that

“ Aderemi Adegbite is an "angry young man". You would not really tell when you first see him. But when you listen to his clear opinions and look at his work you will understand why. Working for many years as a photographer and video artist he has always kept the direct contact with his surrounding, with his environment, the context he is evolving in. Especially the people he is living with have been part of his artistic focus. It is therefore not very surprising to see the topic of his first solo exhibition being entitled "N65". The photographs displayed in the exhibition are a document of what happened to Nigeria early 2012. After a rather sudden removal of oil subsidies the petrol prizes literally over night doubled or tripled which caused some of the biggest mass protests the country had seen in a long time. Unions called on a general strike causing a nationwide standstill and many persons feared violent aggression to break out everywhere. Luckily this violence was minimized and in the end, petrol prices grew only by 50 percent. Daily life went back to normal, even though many people complained about the increase in living costs. But Lagos traffic remained as chaotic as always and buses and public transport continued to travel on their daily routes. Much ado about nothing? ”

Aderemi was involved in the fuel subsidy protest which started on 9 January and ended literally on 16th, 2012 when the Government declared a State of Emergency in all States that support the protest. He was posting photos on Facebook and CNN-iReport[12] with articles daily during the protest which was tagged Occupy Nigeria. He was conscious of his involvement and role as a photographer in the protest and channel his creative resources towards documentation of what could be tagged: "Mini-Neo-Revolution" in the Nigerian politics, in recent years. In his remarks during the opening of "N65" he recounted

“ I woke up to the crude reality of my country on January 1st 2012 – just like millions of other Nigerians. At a time people in other countries of the world were welcoming the New Year with fireworks and fanfares – painting the sky in magnificent colours, Nigerian citizens were busy recounting woes of government policy through manifested in the fuel subsidy removal, which was announced on New Year day. ”

Within three hours after the pronouncement of the removal by the Government, a sachet of Pure Water[13] which sold for N5 became N10, while the bag of 20 sachets rose from N70 to N150. As this is one of the commonly consumed products by the masses, one can only imagine what happened to other consumer products, and especially cost of public transportation!

Jahman Anikulapo,[14] pronounced Aderemi Adegbite an eclectic artiste – in that he is a young fellow whose irrepressible energies and resourcefulness never cease to amaze me; sometimes shocking me in fact. He is a poet, a culture activist/ programmist, a journalist, a civil right activist, filmmaker and lately photographer; and one who is capable of even greater creatively positive mischief(s) than his lean frame suggests.

"N65" opened on 16 June at the Goethe-Institut office in Lagos through 6 July 2012. The solo exhibition – N65 – reopened on 17 September 2012 at the Goethe Institut Dakar, Senegal and closed in December 2012.

Image & Heritage

In 2010, Aderemi changed the name of his organisation known as Kowry Kreations Media to Image & Heritage. His idea for the change of name was influenced by the Creative Enterprise Programme (CEP), a scholarship project of the British Council of Nigeria.[15]

The goal of Image & Heritage is to generate funds in order to be able to embark on arts projects for which public funding are not available. Our activities include promotion services and event planning, accompanying major arts and literary events. The organization, Image & Heritage, was born of a passion for the promotion of arts in all spheres, ranging from moving art to literary art and visual art. The aim of the organisation is to embark on any form of arts project at any period provided the philosophy of the project is inline with its objectives. Indeed, this has been the unbroken principle, the "basic law" if you will, underlying the organisation's mission from the start: No form of arts may be embarked upon unless it’s within the scope of the organisation’s mission and vision.

Aderemi is the chief executive officer and Creative Director of Image & Heritage,[16] a literary and arts organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Image Books

Image Books is an imprint of Image & Heritage Enterprise. Image Books publishes high-quality books, novellas, collections and anthologies of poetry and prose by emerging and established authors with dedication to bringing beautifully crafted works to print. Image Books is interested in all kinds of literature—poetry, prose and drama—that demonstrate original forms and techniques and seek an imaginative style.

Image Books advocates Surrealism, Hermeticism, mythology and folklore, creative non-fiction and voices that are edgy and sensual with an awareness of culture and heritage.

Aderemi is the Publisher of Image Books.

References

  1. ↑ "Ghettoration". Africafilms.tv.
  2. ↑ Daily Times Newspapers, Nigeria
  3. ↑ Image &Amp; Heritage (12 January 2009). "Kowry Kreations Media". Kowrykreationsmedia.blogspot.com. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Poetry Potter". Poetry Potter. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "Remember by Aderemi Adegbite on Poeticdiversity". Poeticdiversity.org. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "The Black Pride by Aderemi Adegbite on OneGhanaOneVoice". Oneghanaonevoice.com. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "Kokumo by Aderemi Adegbite on Shortpoem". Shortpoem.org. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "Be Proud My Child by Aderemi Adegbite". Familiabooks.com. 5 December 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Ode to Kenyan Vagrant by ADEREMI ADEGBITE on Sentinel Nigeria". Sentinelnigeria.org. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "BusinessDay, Friday, 22 June 2012 by Obidike Okafor". Businessdayonline.com. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  11. ↑ "Goethe Institut Nigeria". Goethe.de. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  12. ↑ "CNN iReport". CNN. 18 November 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Friday, Olokor (29 March 2012). "Booming 'pure water' business". The PUNCH. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
  14. ↑ "Jahman Anikulapo". Globalartmuseum.de. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "British Council of Nigeria". Britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  16. ↑ Image & Heritage

External links

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