Fields of Colours

The spontaneity of the human experience is expressively rendered in Olayinka Ashishela’s presentation of Fields of Colours at the Ogirikan Gallery. Colourful rows of stretched squares and swarms of dots overwhelmingly cover the surfaces of his canvases, conveying emotion, identity and reflection. A protégé of two iconic painters, Mr Abiodun Olaku and Emmanuel Dudu, Olayinka has developed a visual language for himself while reflecting the philosophies garnered from both mentors.

Olayinka’s canvases are an abstract expressionistic delight, a celebration of mark-making as an important process in creation. Fields of Colours does not merely connote dots of colour swatches on a canvas; it is an intentional, expressive statement of our collective existence as a people dwelling in a space with unique identities and shared qualities. These works represent the angst of the human experience – the beauty, hope, resilience and trauma – all colliding and existing within the same space.

Not abnegating one for the other, Olayinka expresses joy as present within sorrow, order within chaos, and light within darkness, in an ever-present reality where spontaneity can easily take a twisted turn. In Order within Uncertainty, a patchwork of colourful and thoughtfully rendered squares is disrupted by a swarm of dots, like an army of locusts invading a city – a reflection of the inevitability of fate.

Fields of Colours is a profound exhibition that calls for our reflection as humans existing in a shared space. It is a reminder that mark-making is like thoughts existing independently, and random as that may seem, has an overwhelming effect when pooled collectively. It is a response to human emotion, that though we have diversity in identity, we all share a space in this field of colours that is our existence.