The state of living spring, 2021
Woodplate 70 x 100 cm, copper and stone.
Labyrinth made of copper and stone of the osun river, sacred forest of Osogbo, Nigeria.

I noticed a tiny shop opposite the restaurant I used to eat in Ejigbo, a mixture of bookstore and stationers. I reached for some brightly coloured posters, rolled up and mixed in among crossword puzzles and games printed on newspaper paper like sudoko. The store's posters were unlike the banners everywhere in Nigeria, they had a piece of wood at the top and bottom so they could be stretched tight with a triangle of rope in the back and hung on the wall. I looked at each one, brushing off the dust with my hands. They had been there a long time, they were from the 1980s. I found one with all the outdated slogans of the states of Nigeria, including that of Ọṣun State, where we were: “State of the living spring”. The phrase was like an Arab spring in me, an imminent revolution, a fissure that explodes, poetry carved on a splinter. I bought the poster for 50-naira cents, it could also just be a travel souvenir.

* Osun River Stone, Osogbo, Nigeria, 2019.
*Page 24 of the book Igbáradì fun Ìwé Kíkà (Reading Challenges), by Adebisi Afolayan and Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, Institute of Education, University of Ife, 1980.

The state of living spring, 2021
Woodplate 70 x 100 cm, copper and stone.
Labyrinth made of copper and stone of the osun river, sacred forest of Osogbo, Nigeria.

I noticed a tiny shop opposite the restaurant I used to eat in Ejigbo, a mixture of bookstore and stationers. I reached for some brightly coloured posters, rolled up and mixed in among crossword puzzles and games printed on newspaper paper like sudoko. The store's posters were unlike the banners everywhere in Nigeria, they had a piece of wood at the top and bottom so they could be stretched tight with a triangle of rope in the back and hung on the wall. I looked at each one, brushing off the dust with my hands. They had been there a long time, they were from the 1980s. I found one with all the outdated slogans of the states of Nigeria, including that of Ọṣun State, where we were: “State of the living spring”. The phrase was like an Arab spring in me, an imminent revolution, a fissure that explodes, poetry carved on a splinter. I bought the poster for 50-naira cents, it could also just be a travel souvenir.

* Osun River Stone, Osogbo, Nigeria, 2019.
*Page 24 of the book Igbáradì fun Ìwé Kíkà (Reading Challenges), by Adebisi Afolayan and Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, Institute of Education, University of Ife, 1980.

Work by Ayrson Heráclito and State of the Living Spring