Developing Modern Niger Delta Formalism

Edewor Nelson (b. 1970) is a sculptor whose works depict configurations that espouse contexts associated with inimical and exploitative tendencies of petroleum oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta region. His expressions represent a new formalism that is iconic of the region’s reality in terms of environmental degradation and fundamental human rights abuses. This motivation became imperative in the seemingly failure of other artistic explorations on the subject to adequately reflect modern formal archetypes for which the region’s dilemma can be expressed. The challenge of analytic study of this effort for attaining interpretative insights into this studio practice is pertinent. To realize this, corresponding Ivri traditional art form associated with the past in the region has been studied alongside petroleum drilling–related forms. This provides the fulcrum on which this article approaches an analysis of contextual and conceptual applications attributable to the stylistic oeuvre of Edewor’s practice since 1997. It uses formalism and iconography interpretative tools for its critical discourse.