Jeff Ajueshi is a curator and the brain behind Abuja’s foremost art centre, Thought Pyramid Art Centre. He speaks on his love for art and thriving in the industry.
What provoked your passion for art?
Art for me is often like refined nature that capitalizes on my obsessions with colours, shapes, and causal chains. What actually drives my passion is that I see art beyond money making; I view it as a way of life which should be sustained, for my survival and my pleasure. In order to survive, I realise that we need to be able to tell the difference between different objects. My relationship with art has helped me to understand that stimuli, visual or any other, trigger cognitive activity, whatever that might mean for a given individual. We are affected by what we pay attention to, in other words. We must frame our experience bordering on what we are actually looking at? What we see depends on how we believe the world to be structured, where emphasis resides. Do you see the sun, or the horizon, or how light reflects, or the colour of a sunset, all of that, some of that, or more? Each viewer has his or her own lattice upon which to knit pictures, some of the common fabric, much of the one-off yarn, unique, only accessible to the viewer. Art for me offers a moment frozen in time that is available to the ages, as it takes on the form of a touchstone for those who follow; something to visit along the way and to hold in common with others in their culture; something allowing us to see how we hold ourselves relative to the object beheld and relative to our contemporaries, as well as something to feel.
Who is or are your favourite artist(s)?
I have several favourite contemporary artists. I look for artists who are doing something that is unique – that has a singular voice – and also has technical excellence. My choice of favourite artist may seem somewhat self-serving, but it really is not. The choice derives from a number of years of watching these artists persevere and accomplish. These artists offer solution that could be installed or hung on walls … and then persist in learning and growing artistically from every single work day after day and year after year. I see them as expressionist for their carved lines. Looking at their works, you can see that it has been a real process to get to where they are now. Their works are so well structured, yet they have an ethereal quality. When I look at their paintings, or their installation art, I can understand the three dimensional form and the underlying muscles, and there is so much beauty in the way they couch their interests. I have always been enamoured of anything visual, and detailed, precise artwork like theirs amazes me. They have an amazing sense of colour proportion and movement that conveys a lot of subtle and raw emotions. My favourite artists, in this view, are those that touch profound and personal chords: beauty, clarity, mastery, harmony, authenticity and sincerity – things we do and do not speak about often, perhaps, but remain fundamental and also largely private.
You started promoting art at a time when it was hardly appreciated in Abuja. Could you share with us what those early days were like?
We were able to do that because we knew that there were a handful of risks ahead of us. What we did was to identify and as well mitigate those risks. We have all heard the statistic that half of all start-ups fail within their first five years. The actual number is even bleaker. We are aware of the result of the study of firms formed in 1998, out of which only 44 percent were still around only four years later. While some firms close by choice; perhaps because the owners decided to retire or move on to something new, others shut down as a result of lack of funds to continue. Just as you mentioned in the question, we started promoting art in Abuja when the economy was seriously looking down. Though such a period was unforeseen for us, we had already taught about that from the beginning. That period came as a disaster; it was rough just like with plummeting home values, sinking stock prices, and frozen credit markets. So, we had to pay more heed to our peculiar risk management principle which I hold dearly to heart. We were able to spot the flip side of risk which is an opportunity for survival. Of course, you know that there is a direct relationship between risk and reward: the greater the potential upside, the greater the risks involved, though not in all cases. Unless what you sell is a commodity, there is no easy way to know how the market will receive any new product. Feedback from friends, surveys of potential customers, focus group testing are all useful techniques that we deployed to gauge market acceptance. However, nobody – not you, not your best friend, not your bank – can know for sure whether people will spend money on your solution until you actually try to sell it. We then tried to avoid perfection because it became obvious to us that it would be stupid for us to think that any product, especially artwork, will ever be ‘finished’ in the sense that it will make all users completely happy. But, something was going for us – our environment which exudes the lovely ambience and location. Being in a good location is key for a commercial gallery because commercial galleries are very public activities. You are dealing with the whole public. Art buying is no longer on the weight of the very wealthy people. I have observed that the gallery is for everyone, and that is a great thing because now I can speak to the whole world as an art promoter. We opened to cater for the art lovers here in Abuja and even beyond. And that is the reason the gallery was opened, and that is what we have been doing.
What has been the most difficult part of this journey?
Now is a difficult time for many people in the world. The current economic trends have not favoured the art market. Selling art is never easy, even in the most robust of economies, and at times like this, it can seem nearly impossible. But confronting adversities is a fact of life. Therefore, we have adjusted to prevailing conditions in order to survive. We are very flexible, particularly with respect to selling prices, realizing that art prices fluctuate according to supply and demand market forces just like those of gasoline, electricity, and other commodities. Of course, we cannot expect our price structure to stay the same when people all around are taking salary cuts, losing their jobs, watching their stock portfolios deteriorate, or worrying about their security. This does not mean that we immediately announce to the world that we are having a 70 percent off sale, but rather that we monitor the health of the art market on an ongoing basis in order to respond appropriately to changes as they occur.
How did Thought Pyramid come about and why the name?
Thought Pyramid Art Centre was established to meet a need. Obviously, it is to meet the need for the art to be professionally housed and managed with the needed expertise, as it is done in the developed world. If you visit a gallery outside of Nigeria, you will attest to the fact that a gallery is where art finds its bearing, and the artist bears his or her muse. The name of the gallery was derived from a ‘thought’ of a symbol that can be identified with the cradle of civilisation which historical can be found in Egypt. And it is in Egypt that you can find ‘Pyramid.’ Hence, the name, Thought Pyramid Art Centre.
Lagos is more of art city than Abuja. Why did you decide to set up here?
Of course, we knew that Abuja was not a city in which people were interested in the art. But, do not forget that it was not as if the Abuja people had an offer for visual art interface that they turned down, in terms of where they could have a good art place to see and appreciate art. It may be because Abuja residents then used to be uncomfortable or insecure around the art that they could not instantly and easily understand. It may also be because they believed that if they should ask questions, galleries will only intimidate or humiliate them. We were in the know that people, especially civil servant could be afraid to look uninformed, and almost as a protective mechanism, they could spontaneously react negatively or reject art altogether simply because they did not understand it. They would do this rather than ask even the most basic questions. We had to set up here, in order to help communicate that if a work of art intrigues you – any art – no matter how much or how little you know about it, just ask questions. The answers to your questions might intrigue you even the more, and your increased understanding of the art may well evolve into an exceptionally enlightening experience. We cannot be happier and delighted than that we respond to this particular question; we can strongly tell that there is hardly anything that we like better than talking art with anyone who shows any interest whatsoever. Believe it. We as a gallery are not in business to demean people who do not understand the art. Rather, we are in business because we love art, and we love sharing our knowledge about art, welcoming people into the realm of art, and putting art into the hands of people who genuinely appreciate it. We have patiently been doing this in Abuja, and it is paying off. So, gradually, Abuja is becoming a vibrant art city, and I can assure you that in a very short while, Abuja would give Lagos a very stiff competition, in terms of art patronage.
What is the most interesting part of running your gallery?
The most interesting in what I do is that I sell trust and a white canvas, and the promise of a titillating and scintillating experience – an uplifting spirit captured in images. It is also interesting for us getting exposure and getting exposure in front of the right people who will appreciate our style and have the money to buy a piece of work to allow us to remain full-time in business. For us, it is reserving uninterrupted creative time.
