Taiye Idahor was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. Where she attended the well known Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. Where she majored in sculpture before earning a Higher National Diploma (HND) in 2007. Idahor has made great contributions to the area of identity theory and the use of hair as a visual language by women during the last few year. She highlights how trade, beauty, the environment, and globalization all play a role in shaping a woman’s identity in today’s culture in Africa, particularly in Lagos, Nigeria, where she has spent most of her life.
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Idahor explores layers of subjects that are intimate while large in size intimate using collage, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media. She expresses her identity as a female African in the larger her body of work. Hair is a recurring theme in her work that speaks of the different symbolic elements of the female. Filled with a myriad of mixed media, such as tracing paper and newspapers, Idahor’s pieces vary from sculptures, collages, and drawing. Expressing different forms and identities of the woman.
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Through an emphasis on hair, her artistic work delves into the challenges of identity as a woman of African descent, interpreting its symbolic reflections on history, tradition, memory, globalization, and inequity. Her attention to hair points to a relationship with her family, ethnicity, and lineage. Join host, Jonas Schwarz Lausten on understanding the journey that is inspiration to completion of a body of work by Idahor.
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Music is from Pixabay and the theme song “Start Again” is by Nigerian singer/songwriter Falana. Sculpture on podcast cover by Alimi Adewale.