An Ìyálóde is a high-ranking female leader in traditional Yoruba communities. Using an 18th-century archive photo of a female military unit as his starting point, Akpo obscured the only male leader in the group behind a colourful image of a woman. He sewed an oversized version of this new ‘queen’ onto the fabric with striking red stitches: a statement intended to foreground strong women and acknowledge their role in history.
Ìyálóde by artist Ishola Akpo was a centrepiece in the inaugural Benin Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Measuring 7 by 4.5 metres, the enormous tapestry aims to spotlight Africa’s unsung heroines. An Ìyálóde is a high-ranking female leader in traditional Yoruba communities. Using an 18th-century archive photo of a female military unit as his starting point, Akpo obscured the only male leader in the group behind a colourful image of a woman. He sewed an oversized version of this new ‘queen’ onto the fabric with striking red stitches: a statement intended to foreground strong women and acknowledge their role in history.
In the Lab, two tapestries were woven in two different types of fabric. One is the archive image, made from black, white and silver threads. The use of floats captures the graininess of the old photo. The coloured appliqué of the queen was woven separately, using much finer, brightly coloured and glossy yarns. Gold thread accentuates her accessories and jewellery. Akpo put the finishing touches to the tapestry in Venice, sewing over the appliqué again with thick red stitches to emphasise the woman’s insertion in the scene. Samples and sketches from the project can be seen in the ‘Secrets of making #4’ exhibition in the TextielMuseum until the summer of 2025.
Ishola Akpo is a photographer and multimedia artist whose practice explores the possibilities of digital technology. The artist mixes elements of modernity and tradition in his work in order to elicit different readings of his work that result in plural metaphors. The frontier between reality and fiction, fixed and multiple identities, remains central to Akpo’s artistic approach.
'Everything Precious Is Fragile', Republic of Benin, Venice Biennale, 20 April - 24 November 2024
