Jesse Jos is a full-time artist for two years. Although he is a Mass Communication graduate, his art on everything and graffiti have become famous within and around Kaduna for their bold colours, geometry lines and theme. The Ham, Kaduna State born speaks to Arts & Ideas about finding a home in the creative industry.
What got you into art?
At age eight I discovered that I could draw and began trying it out on A4 paper. I never took it seriously. After NYSC a friend of mine, Chekwube, said to me, “Now that we are done with NYSC, what should we do? From what I know, I know that we should put our best foot forward. Do you want to work, keep wasting your money job hunting or do we look at what God has given to us?” I never understood what he was saying until I exhausted my NYSC allowance and I began struggling and asking questions. After thinking it through, I decided I would be a graffiti artist and one of Nigeria’s best.
Why graffiti?
It is something that is rare. I watch TV and see movies and hip-hop videos. I see a lot of graffiti. I love the fusion with culture and the urban lifestyle. I am from Kaduna State which is known as the home of hip-hop in Nigeria. I didn’t think it was complete to have hip-hop without graffiti as I saw in the videos. So, like a joke, I began doing graffiti. In 2015, I decided to take it seriously. I began mixing it with graphic design in Lagos. In 2017 I decided I would do only art because now, I understood the whole thing about putting your best foot forward and giving it my all.
What do you like to capture in your graffiti?
I do abstract, paintings and I do normal paintings that one can relate with it by just seeing the images. I am inspired by life and anything that would connect with humans. I describe my graffiti as an afro urban and try to fuse in a bit of hyper one word realism with abstract and then connecting the old culture of art with the new school.
I was looking through your images and notice that your colours are bold and your patterns feature a lot of geometry. Any particular reason?
I decided to be free with myself and wanted to have my own style and then began doing anything. From doing them I fell in love with lines and began doing works with lines. I did a piece, ‘Arewa’ in Lagos but it wasn’t making any sense to me. My ex-fiance kept encouraging me to keep up with it. I then decided I would call the work ‘Hamlord Series’ trying to connect it with my culture. One day she drew my attention to the works of Laolu Senbanjo who at the time had just been commissioned by Nike. She said he does exactly what I am doing and see how far he has come. That was mind blowing for me. We had almost the same design but the difference is that he is exposed. He knows it and understands the game and has definition for everything. I just have raw talent. I never studied Fine Art. I kept following him and made sure I put up his post notification and kept inspiring myself and following his work. When I teach others, I celebrate him because I like to have his experience. I wonder how you bring lines together and title them, ‘Secret art of the ori.’ I learnt some level of boldness from him and I am still learning.
What was it like making the transition from Mass Communication to visual arts?
It was seamless. Before school, at age 15, I did a pencil portrait of President Buhari which I believe got to him through his brother Musa Daura. There were artists who knew I was good with sketching. If they had jobs, they would tell me, “come let me teach you. The more you do, the more you learn and get better.”
Did you feel exploited?
No. I felt that whatever it was, it would be to my own advantage. They had a mindset of making money and I began making some small money off what I was doing for them. They were investing in art but it was deeper for me. It was a mix of making money through art and then enjoying it.
How does your art connect with your culture?
I have always asked why in Nigeria we have a lot of misunderstanding among ourselves and the answer that always comes back is that we are so diverse and different. I researched through countries and little settings of government in some books. I realized that the only way you can actually control, coordinate and man people well, is when you understand the communication you are using and how to communicate with them effectively. We have all the types of languages in Nigeria, but like nobody wants to agree that we are all the same. I feel that there is a lot of chaos. I therefore brought it down to my locality. I am from Ham, in Southern Kaduna where we have Nok terracotta. We used to be called Jabba people. Records have it that Nok dates back to 2,500 years before Christ. This is like the earliest civilization in Nigeria. Imagine how powerful the Ife and Benin bronze heads have become. But you come to the north, the fame is not as much.
For me, Nok art is enough for us to gain in the State even though we have nothing the government is giving to us because it is serious history. I don’t want to hear that they are bringing back stolen artefacts from the West. The Baju, Kataf are the only ones who can use Nok terracotta and feel comfortable? For me, it doesn’t make sense because I feel it belongs to us all, not just the Ham people. As an artist I know that we have to preserve history so that it develops relevance. I thought about giving attention to the Nok art and wondered if there was something more. I wondered if these spirit heads of Nok creativity were the things behind the creativity, the music the art and other faces of Kaduna State; yet they are not having any government support, but get to do creative things which wow you when you see them.
I see in all the Nok terracotta, the presence of the male heads are more. Since I didn’t have the history clearly, I began thinking if it were possible that the artists back then were trying to preserve the history of their time, their people, kings and people who were like gods to them. People they looked up to. I know in my history our people worshipped what they call ‘dodo’ which is interpreted as masquerade. Those were probably controlled by the kings and so there was power. Since they didn’t have cameras, to preserve him, they thought about doing something. I am thinking the Nok heads were their way of preserving these powerful kings which is how they kept piling the images of their leaders which brought about the terracotta heads.
This is major for me so I have to make my people feel stronger about it because I believe these people felt strong about these things for them to create the heads as they did back then.
Which has been the most challenging piece you had to execute?
I started working professionally two years ago and I don’t think I have done anything yet that I have had any challenge with. I haven’t done any piece that took me a week because I have a lot of speed. I have done very gigantic works in less than 22 hours. For me to do that, when I see other artists spending a month to achieve somethings, I can’t open my mouth. I would say I have God’s grace because only He could do that for me. I am trying to experience the challenge and have huge works I am going to spend more time on, to see what would come out if I spent one or two weeks on a piece.
Apart from graffiti, what else do you do?
My main identity is art on everything. I do art on clothing, cars, walls, on anything. I however decided to be identified as a graffiti artist because I love it. It gives me freedom in terms of space, for expression. It doesn’t confine me. It also has reach and there is no limitation to my work. Graffiti are always in places where everybody has access to them. When I do a portrait or single pieces, they hang on people’s walls. This limits the work. I don’t do the graffiti of vandalism. I do it as serious business and make people feel good. I also train people in art, photography and other areas. I collaborate with people who have specialty to teach them those things that I cannot. I do this under something I call BORO (Borrow One, Raise Others) which is my way of giving back to society for a token.
Art is making you smile to the bank?
(Laughter) I am grateful to God. Compared to some others like me, I am grateful to God. I get called to come and do jobs. I have worked on projects with big brands with the likes of Victor Ehikhamenor and Adeleke Adekunle. I put in some energy but God has been good to me. I am working on 30 huge paintings for ‘Hamlord Series,’ so that I can have an exhibition.
What are your favourite colours to work with?
Black and white, anytime, any day. They give me balance and a good base to start off anything.
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