Chukwu exhibits UNIBEN art school stuff

Sunday Chika Chukwu, a final year student of the Department of Fine and Applied Art, University of Benin (UNIBEN), is yet to graduate but he is already showing the creativity to behold in his career. For any art collector, who has an eye for good sculpture, then, Chukwu is one artist that such collector is looking for, going by his recently mounted sculptural piece at the UNIBEN.

The 21 feet tall metal statue of two men in a power tussle depicts man in a decisive battle with technology. According to  Chukwu, the sculpture is a surreal  depiction of man in the 21st Century, facing his creation in the age of technology. One major factor that dominates Chukwu’s art is that barely 16 years into the 21st Century, man has become so absorbed, in an unusual euphoria of technology usage, that he cannot do without it.

Chukwu highlights serious concern for today’s technology, he believes that the next 84 years will, arguably, be the most insecure in the history of humanity, as the human race concedes it’s power to what man created and live at its mercy.
He depicts this  in his work entitled Twenty-first Century.

The sculpture features technology in human form, looking like the ‘Transformer’ in a contemporary sci-fi movie, carrying a half-naked man on its shield, it points a sophisticated weapon against the man who held an archaic shield and sword. The man-like iron figure  is  clad in sophisticated amour while the human remains in his simple attire, like the primeval savage he was. Man’s invention,  he believes, has not only threatened his will, but, has also claimed his mind. According to him, people, barely, do things today without applying technology, which is viewed as perfect, though, created by man.

The statue is made of mild steel, painted in bronze-metal colour. The city of Benin, known for its great artworks, has, again, produced a unique piece from the hands of a gifted sculptor.