Isaac Sumaina Ikoghode, a self-taught artist, is the Founder of SMKY Arts in Benin City, which started out as an art company but has in recent times delved into the fashion industry and incorporating artworks into fashion wears. The Civil Engineering graduate of the University of Benin speaks on his art and related matters. Here are excerpts:
How it all started
Everything I know about art is self-taught through workshops and apprenticeships. In 2017 I attended The Harmattan workshop in Delta State, Agbaroto, organised by Bruce Onobrakpeya from 2017 to 2018. So from there I developed some skills and I invested in art books and digital books, physical books, watched a lot of Youtube videos and I just developed this art thing myself and thankfully, I have been able to make something from it and we still have so much more to do.
SMKY was founded in 2016. It is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. We are an art company now into fashion. I would say we are still evolving and trying to come up with a niche. We have a company that is sort of an umbrella. So we now have SMKY apparels under it.
I am a painter, a visual artist. I have some other artists who work with me. We do paintings on canvas, murals, digital arts and so on and so forth.
Why we went into fashion
We find that the generality of people tend to not buy or patronise paintings as well as we would love them to. And then we found out that in putting these same artworks on clothes and apparels, we tend to get more clientele. And so that’s how SMKY as a clothing unit was born.
In Benin City, for example, SMKY Clothing is well known for paintings on fabric. In recent times we have this popular danshiki wear that is trending right now.
We make our designs customised to the individual. We started out with individuals saying they want a particular design or artwork on apparel. All of our designs are hand-painted. So an individual will ask for sometimes even their pictures or images of their loved ones painted on clothes. But during that time, it metamorphorsed into something more cultural.
So that’s how it started, customising people’s outfits, from T-shirts to jeans, to even sneakers. So, I thought if people could ask for what they want, why not use the opportunity of that platform to portray our culture and heritage.
Foreign vs native culture
I was born in Benin City, so the Benin culture is all I’ve known all my life, so I see people going for the Gucci T-shirt, the Versace T-shirt and if you look closely, the logo of the Versace line is actually the head of Medusa, the Greek deity or goddess that has snakes for hair.
So, I see Nigerians rushing for Gucci this, Gucci that and they are wearing a shirt that has the logo of a Greek deity, which is foreign, whereas we have so many deities here in Benin culture, not to talk about Nigeria as a whole, a lot of them at that.
With the coming of western religion and all, somehow things about our deities or history have been termed dark.
Now instead of seeing the Versace logo over and over again, you see a logo that shows the royal seal of the Benin Kingdom, or a logo that reminds you of Aruan the giant.
Thank God for Festac 77, we all know the Idia mask logo, that’s what everybody wants to see when you are to do anything cultural in Benin City. The Idia mask has been used over and over again but there are so many other figures that we can use. The ada and eben, the official staff of the Bini Kingdom, is something that even our little ones don’t even know about.
The leopard, for example, was a majestic animal roaming about our forests. Over time we lost them to excessive hunting. If you have the opportunity to visit the palace, you see some sculptures depicting the Oba in his majesty or you notice that there are usually leopards. In fact, we have one on Ring Road, of the Oba with two leopards by his side.
Passing the knowledge to younger generation
A very good way of presenting or teaching this history to young people these days is either through movies, books, and one that we have not explored, that is fashion. And I think that it is a good thing happening right now that the world in general is tilting to Africa for almost everythin
And so this is the right time, the most appropriate time to make use of that pulse and instead of just making fashion for fashion sake, you can put some element of education in it.
Something I noticed about Nigerians is that we like things that look foreign and it’s not because they are foreign we like them, we like things that tend to be expensive or have some sort of affiliation to being elite.
If only a brand called Esohe and Osas can grow and be seen as something elitist. For example, if our music and movie celebrities start wearing designs or brands showing our cultural heritage in the design or even in the name. If Davido should wear a T-shirt in a music video tomorrow and it shows the logo, made by Esohe and Co, every single person in Nigeria would want to wear that brand.
Question of quality
I am of the opinion that our local brands not having very high quality can still be attributed to the fact that people still prefer foreign brands.
For our products, we use the highest quality that we can get and guess what, if I am going to the fabrics market to get the highest quality, definitely it’s going to be more expensive.
But if we get important people in our community, the elite or even government bodies or influencers, to promote and give our local brands that buzz that they should have, then people will tend to see our products as good as foreign ones and be willing to pay as much as they pay for the foreign ones, then we will gradually be able to top up our quality.
Influence of Benin culture
In Benin culture we have been known for our art, our famous relief art on plaques, most of which are in British museums right now.
We also do works from other cultures. I recently delivered a piece of clothing that had a beautiful drawing of a Yoruba drummer with some ancient markings. I don’t think any other culture in Nigeria has as much motifs as the Benin culture, from our walls to our ornaments. We have different motifs.
Imagine you having a shirt with this motifs over and over and people wearing it over and over again, people will start to ask, what is this symbol? And then the education and communication has started.
There is a movie, “The Woman King”, about the Dahomian Kingdom and all, that’s our history. Why the United States citizens doing it for us, when we the owners of the culture can do it for ourselves?
We are an art company, we sell art pieces as well as render services. Now we are coming up with our own brand, which is aimed at promoting the Edo heritage. We are still working on our website. It is not ready yet. There, we will display our art pieces which will be strictly on the Edo culture.
During the just concluded ENINA Festival here in Benin, 80 percent of my exhibitions were Edo art and the clothings I exhibited had Edo art representation of His Royal Majesty and there was one carrying the face of Oba Ewuare II and somebody from Delta State bought it.
Your message to investors
Anybody willing to invest should come in. So far, everything about my business has been self-funded. I have been doing it on not-so-large scale, but I think with events happening now at the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, even the ENINA Festival I participated in, I see opportunities where the government can come into it.
I would be very grateful and honoured if the government either through Edo Jobs, the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, and any other agency can come in to publicise or finance. By this interview you are already doing a great part in pushing the business.
Exhibitions
Shows and festivals are the best platforms for showcasing and promotions as well as letting people know what is happening in that particular industry.
Prior to the creation of the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, events like exhibitions and art festivals used to be scarce in Benin City. Then, we had just the Oba Akenzua Cultural Centre.
I only found out now, a lot about the Creative Hub through the ENINA Festival and I am surprised that a lot has even happened within the last year or so, that I have missed and from that event I can even say that we have moved many more steps than I could have imagined.
I was surprised and amazed to see what was happening there. Speaking with the executive director of the Creative Hub, I even learned that more activities are lined up for the rest of the year.
There are whispers about a fashion week coming up. It is like one the most important types of activities we need for the creative industry and it hasn’t been happening so much in the past.
But in recent times I find that the state government has done a lot to boost the creativity industry and that is why I am here to take and seize that opportunity.
I am a private entity myself with SMKY ART and I don’t see any reason why I would not jump on any call I receive from the Creative Hub participating one way or another.
Use of funding
To invest in the media, to get more publicity and to get more hands, everything works better with more hands and I think it will be good for the community too. More hands mean people are engaged and people are finding employment one way or the other. So promoting the business, investing in the media, getting more hands, experimenting new ideas to further the objectives, and try adding other things, so there’s a lot.
Social media, online exhibition
We don’t have a physical office right now, everything is virtual. My shop is on Instagram and WhatsApp, it’s virtual. Everything is happening online.
There are so many platforms for online exhibitions, although most of what we see right now are for the traditional art which is the visual art, digital painting, among others.
My brand is not just for fashion alone but it is art and fashion while the company S.M.K.Y. is chasing art and culture. Personally I am an artist on my own also chasing my visual art career.
I have a few of my works that were exhibited during the coronation of the new Oba, Oba Ewuare II. During his coronation we had an exhibition for Benin art.
I was has the opportunity ed and privilege to have three of my artworks featured in that exhibition through the ”Edo Global Art Foundation” which is owned by Mr Paul Ogbebor, I did a year internship or apprenticeship with him at his studio, Edo Global Art Studio, at Sakponba Road.
Diaspora market
I have a lot of clients in the UK and Canada. That’s where we have flocks of Nigerians. It is ironic that the Nigerians in the diaspora value our arts more than those here at home in Nigeria.
Maybe its over-familiarity or maybe we see it too much here, or nostalgia. Diaspora clients tend to make orders in large numbers but shipping goods out can be difficult and super expensive. So it discourages some of the clients. They tend to wait for people coming back home to do the pick-ups for them.
