Artist Profile: Dilomprizulike V1 2u2b

ARTIST PROFILE:

DIL HUMPHREY-UMEZULIKE BY TERRY BRUNT

DIL HUMPHREYUMEZULIKE • Also Known as: • Dilomprizulike • “The Junkman From Africa”

• Born 1960 in Enugu, Nigeria • Contemporary artist in sculpting, performing and painting • Education • Studied art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Nigeria • Received an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from the University of Dundee, Scotland

HIS STATEMENT “Junk keeps following me like a pilot fish because I won’t let it rest. And toying with junk has taught me that reality lies within the property of the man: and not in this ‘plastic world’ of the world. The battle goes on as the world rapidly races ahead – the casualties litter the fields and gutters. - waste, garbage – But I look at these outcasts, bruised & battered from the battle with abandon; and their innocent bleeding wounds evoke a comion in me as I pick them, bathe them with the emotional touch of a mother. Soon they burst into life, reverberating with colours and contours and according to likes of genders. I say, “Stay together, in cages here and there. Let me look after you until the ‘New Yam Festival’…”

HIS ART Dilomprizulike uses old clothing, scrap and other rubbish to create his sculptures. His art often reflects politics, society or culture.

JUNKYARD MUSEUM OF AWKWARD THINGS A museum constructed entirely out of discarded materials The museum has been constructed twice: Once in Lagos, Nigeria and again for the Mostyn Gallery, Wales (2010) Dilomprizulike himself described the museum as: “Presents the unpresentable Values the worthless Appreciates the depreciated

Takes the outcasts inside Embraces the untouchable” The Junkyard reflects people’s sense of rejection in a consumer society

WEAR AND TEAR INSTILLATION Wear and Tear is an instillation of numerous structures Dilomprizulike created in 2000

“Wear and Tear as a concept attempts to expose the often overlooked and underrated elements of the African-Urban communal life which largely influence it. The alienated situation of the African in his own society becomes tragic. There is a struggle inside him, a consciousness of living with the complications of an imposed civilisation. He can no longer go back to pick up the fragments of his father's shattered culture; neither is he equipped enough to keep pace with the whiteman's world.” Dilomprizulike’s explanation of Wear and Tear from the Africa's: The Artist and the City exhibition

AFRICA REMIX Some of Dilomprizulike’s work was featured in the Africa Remix tour to the Hayward Gallery in London (2005)

OTHER ART

OTHER ART