Lagos Space Programme - Aṣọ Fashion as Visual Oríkì

“Aṣọ (Dress) can be conceived as a visual form of oríkì, as the arrangement of patterns, colours, shapes, and textures on a figure can cohere into a powerful gestalt form–a ‘look’ –that is able to trigger an affective response in the perceiver. The Yoruba terms, ojú-inú (inner eye) and oju-ọnà (design consciousness) respectively refer to the intuitive and technical capacities required by an artist to engineer a visual or verbal oríkì that speaks to the subject’s ìwà, and in doing so releases àṣẹ. Ẹwà, meaning beauty, is the result of a work of art that realizes the art object’s essential nature, its inner character, its ìwà. Accordingly, aesthetic beauty cannot exist separately from a deeper ethical truth–a position that refutes dominant Eurocentric framings of aesthetics. The Lagos Space Programme conceives of clothing as oríkì, combining physical matter (colour and sound), non-physical matter (àṣẹ), and aesthetics (poeticism, rhythm, and proportion) to form resplendent pieces that reflect the ìwà of its wearers”. Text by Kojo Abudu, Five Theses on Lagos Space Programme Model: @michael.samuel_ , @90smodelmgmt