A Sculptural Concept of Iphri as a Symbol of Niger Delta Struggle for Resource Control

Abstract

The imposition of western culture and apparent abandonment of African Justice Value system has no doubt brought about the high level of injustice in our society today. This situation could be corrected by a revival of our cultural values which could be best professed through the medium of art evocation of appropriate traditional institution. Art is still the most effective means of communication since it could be understood by both literate and illiterate persons. This means that the artist uses any medium with which he / she feels can express his / her inner thoughts to create perceptible objects or things. In view of this problem, the research aims at using metals and fibre glass which is a by-product of petroleum to create abstracted sculpture of Iphri. Iphri is a traditional Urhobo sculpture used as a symbol of moderation. When one is very aggressive or too weak to face life challenges, Iphri would be produced for the individual. Iphri is a force that exist in the cosmic world which assists man to take control of his environment in order to succeed in life. Apart from Iphri, there are other naturalistic and semi-naturalistic sculptures produced which are relevant to the research. This project hopes to create awareness about modern usage of direct metal construction because of its importance to modern art / technology. Both metal and fibre glass are closely related to the oil producing industry.