As you take in “What Shaped Us Does Not Disappear,” German-Nigerian artist Joke Amusan’s solo exhibition at Affinity Gallery, you realise slowly that the focus is not on images, but on words.
That emphasis is in keeping with what has become her signature – positive affirmations boldly embroidered with bright red yarn onto hessian cloth (burlap). With their bite-sized declarations, Amusan’s earlier work appeared to take its cues from Instapoetry, and sometimes veered close to ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ territory, but in this exhibition, she shows remarkable growth as a wordsmith.
There is no mistaking the maturity in Home Travels With Us (2026) which reads: “Home Travels With Us. In Names That Are Ours. In Proverbs Our Tongue Still Knows. In Stories We Tell.” Taken together, When We Gather (2026), While Carrying All That We Have Been (2026), and the titular What Shaped Us Does Not Disappear (2026) demonstrate an artist who not only favours brevity, but is plumbing the depths of her Yoruba and Nigerian heritage.
When it comes to discussing the works of artists of African descent, the word ‘heritage’ is sometimes bandied about as a descriptor, but its use here is accurate. Amusan’s choice of all-natural materials, techniques and even, framing are all in conversation with her cultural traditions. One of the ways she achieves this is through language. Igi Kan Kò Lè Dá Igbo (2026), the only work in the exhibition to feature a Yoruba-language inscription, is taken from a proverb – a method of knowledge-sharing – that means a single tree cannot make a forest and speaks to the communal philosophy shared by many indigenous African cultures.
Amusan’s arrangement of fabric and yarn around wire to give shape to her cocoon-like sculptures, Returning to the Centre (2026) and The Space Between Still Holds (2026), shows the multidimensionality of textile art, and her method is imitative of the coiling techniques employed by basket weavers and hairstylists who wrap thread around hair to create three-dimensional hairdos. In adding onion-dyed fabric into the exhibition, Amusan is also reclaiming the indigenous practice of extracting colour from organic materials.
Hessian fabric, the common denominator in both her tapestry and sculptures, is woven from jute fibre, a staple in local artisanry, and is widely used for sacks exporting African-sourced agricultural produce like grains and coffee around the world. For Amusan, a diasporan whose work has enjoyed showings in Europe and North America, it is somewhat poetic that her first exhibition on the African continent is in Lagos, a major export hub.
In addition to being a homecoming party for Amusan, What Shaped Us Does Not Disappear demonstrates how indigenous ways of knowing can be a valuable resource for contemporary art, and how its appropriation can in turn safeguard intangible heritage.
What Shaped Us Does Not Disappear is open to the public from March 8 to April 18 at the Affinity Gallery, Unit 2, 1-7 Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
***Akumbu Uche is a writer and storyteller from Nigeria. Her works have been published by thelagosreview.ng, Aké Review, Brittle Paper, Canthius, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere.
•Featured image: Installation view – Joke Amusan, What Shaped Us Does Not Disappear, Affinity Gallery, Lagos, 2026/Courtesy of the artist and Affinity Gallery.
