Women at the Base of the Bridge
Street Art Break in VR
Lagos, Nigeria is not known as a beautiful city.
It grew too fast on oil boom money in the 1970s and 80s. Aesthetics were not a big priority and the look became increasingly grey.
Lagos was also not known for its street art, until fairly recently when it became fully incorporated into a larger plan of what is referred to as, ‘urban regeneration.’
Street art suddenly went from outlaw to partner of the State.
Lagos is a mega city made up of a coastal section facing the Atlantic Ocean and several large islands.
The Falomo Bridge connects Lagos Island and Victoria Island. It’s important. The government spent billions on it but did not consider its impact on the people near the on-ramp in Ikoyi.
It soon became a dangerous, dilapidated section of the neighborhood.
In 2017, a project was launched to change the character of the area. Public art was part of the plan — not just to beautify but to inspire.
When Polly Alakija was commissioned in 2017 by the Lagos State government to paint the underside of the bridge, it was the most spectacular part of a larger vision of spaces for creativity, street vendors and social life. Something that would be a plus for local people and an interesting destination for tourists.
She painted faces of the women who lived there. They were not anybody in specific but they could be. She painted them on the large columns, all facing the same direction, holding up the bridge.
Those columns and the women depicted on them keep the city functioning. Usually we don’t see it so clearly. Here it is impossible to miss.
The place is nicer now. It is a high traffic area and there is only so much anyone can do, but they did.
People come here to sit in the shade the bridge provides and look at the pictures of themselves. There are a few vendors now. Tourists who come to see something unique and authentic will see it.
Polly Alakija is considered one of Nigeria’s top contemporary artists. She was born in England, studied Art at the Oxford Polytechnic, and had her first exhibition when she was 18.
In 1989 she married a Nigerian, moved to Lagos and began a family. Since 2005, she has worked in Nigeria, South Africa, and England and has exhibited both internationally and locally.
Women from an organization named, Bring Back our Girls, have met at the exact site of the paintings every Saturday since 2014.
The murals show women who live here now.
The murals were also created in homage to the 276 female students who were abducted from the Chibok School in northern Nigeria on April 14, 2014 by Boko Haram.
Solution Lumiere LTD was hired to provide the lighting for a new, safer and more inviting area.
Solution Lumiere LTD is a multi-generational family business, based in Beirut, Lebanon and focused entirely on lighting and design. The company has expanded around the Middle East and Africa, with an active office in Lagos.
The murals are beautifully lit every night.
Tom’s work has not appeared in The New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, The New Republic, the New England Journal of Medicine, or anything New at all.
He only publishes in obscure journals and, once upon a time, PBS Program Guides. Otherwise he just gives his work a URL and sends it packing on the web at places like Medium and Sub-Stack, where he enjoys a modest following.
