Aldebaran & his Pleiades
Aida Oluwagbemiga
Senior communications executive (finance, development & creative industries).
Midsummer with Aldebaran and his Pleiades is a cluster of charcoal unfinished silhouettes by Jonathan Adamu.
Midsummers allow us to observe the relationship between day and night, a contrast of dark? & white. Cultures have celebrated the Joy of long warm days spent outside with festivals to mark the Summer Solstice which falls on the longest day of the year.
This year it is expected on the 21st of June (and can fall between the 20th or the 22nd) a few days from today where the sky stays light into the night.
In Arabic al Dabarān ("???????"), means "the follower", as he seems to follow the Pleiades.?
Aldeberan appears a little later and so does the speck of tiny baby stars at his wake.??
Midsummers are not static, they are recurring, seasonal and carry more day light where one can dwell on cascading complexities.
The rotating cast of this series remain unnamed, it encompasses diverse personalities in head dresses outlining distinct features of crew cuts and cleanly shaven heads.
It speaks to simple observed moments calling at us to be noticed.?
There are no rituals to his process, no manic immediacy, only the reverberating gusts of graphite & occasionally the strumming of Lucky Day ‘my window’ with Mahalia, Kid Cudi’s; Maybe So & Chest Baker’s ‘Tenderly’.
Jonathan’s approach is derivative of Andrew Tischer & Kei Meguro as he has wandered into creating from studying the sciences. AJ trails after depilated lovers, chapped lips and muses with mystifying, tortured and soulless eyes.
Eyes for him, the windows of the soul and starry nights fuel this melancholy.
Habitually we leave unnoticed Midsummers, Aldebaran & Pleiades.?
Aldebaran is easy to find, The Pleiades asterism is the most obvious cluster to the naked eye and to outline them requires the intense fixation he has generously applied here.
Adamu Jonathan (AJ) is ardent with these faces retracing with pencils over the backdrop of vignettes ad infinitum much like Aldebaran and his Pleiades.
Aida Oluwagbemiga
Curator
This exhibition runs from 18th June to 28th of July 2023 at the Milk Shop, Maitama Amusement Park IBB Way, Maitama, Abuja.