Multidisciplinary textile artist, Yoma Imore yesterday wowed attendees at the opening of her debut solo exhibition, ‘There Was Once a Traveler’.
The exhibition that marked a major milestone in her artistic journey held at the prestigious Rele Gallery, Ikoyi, with the crème de la crème in attendance.
Structured as an unfolding journey, There Was Once a Traveler… is composed of interwoven chapters – The Travelers Map and some characters.
Each work functions as a topography of memory, where letters, stamps, travel documents and postal markings are stitched into delicate networks of movement and entanglement.
According to the artist, There Was Once a Traveler… proposes an alternative temporality one in which the past is neither static nor inert but in constant dialogue with the present, reanimated through the material practices of memory making.
Speaking with Global Affairs Magazine in an exclusive interview the artist’s mother Barr. Oritsematosan Edodo-Emore expressed profound gratitude to God for a successful event.
“We are grateful to God that today’s exhibition has actually come to pass.
“The artist has taken a lot of time and efforts to prepare all of these pieces. I’m very proud not only because her works are appreciated but the house is also full so that’s a great thing and we are proud of it”.
Encouraging parents to support whatever career path their children decide to take, she said;
“I think it’s important for us the parents to support the children and let them go the direction they feel is right for them in terms of career and we as parents, give all the support that there is to give which is what we have done and look at the result, excellent result so we are very proud”.
When asked how she feels that her daughter choose this path instead of professional courses like medicine or law, she posited thus;
“When she choose the part of art what we did was just to support her. Most times I don’t really know what she’s doing but anytime she is at work I’m very supportive, I take charge of all of the cooking, all of the domestic chores because when she is drawing she can’t do anything else. She’s just unable to do anything else because she concentrates so much so I understand that and I know that as soon as she starts to work mummy has all the chores”.
Advising parents that impose their choice of career on their children, Oritsematosan said; “First of all, I understand why parents say that. Why parents say that is because they fear that all of those careers may not be sustainable for the life of the child. That’s why but I will encourage parents to be supportive of that child and of that profession that they have chosen and so long as they are diligent in it they will prosper but parental support is important for the prosperity of the child.
Speaking on whether the government has given much attention to the artistic career, she said; “Not as much as they should but they should begin to do that because creativity is more than oil.”
Yoma Imore who is a poetic exploration of memory, migration and correspondence, where textiles becomes vessel of lived experience and historical residue, hinted Global Affairs Magazine how she was inspired by letters exchanged between her mother and international pen pals during the 1970s and 1980s.
According to her, she did her artistic work through hand-stitched embroidery, screen printing and layered textile compositions, these series enacts a speculative archaeology of connection – inscribing the emotional and bureaucratic traces of diasporic movement, nostalgia and deferred encounters.
One of the letters displayed at the exhibition was a letter sent by a German pen pal, Josef, which took two years to reach Emore’s mother in Nigeria. In a Surreal twist, she would later recognize Josef in her language class in France, their written correspondence manifesting into an unexpected real-life encounter. It is precisely these moments – where time folds, letters collapse distance and absence transforms into presence – that Emore captures with deftness and emotions.
