Sims, Aliens & Tropical Surrealism
The Regent by Bunmi Agusto
In conversation with CSM alumna and rising star, Bunmi Agusto 👽
Addy: Bunmi, thanks so much for joining me! What is your earliest memory of drawing?
Bunmi: I think I was three. I remember being in playgroup and drawing a bunny and sticking cotton wool to paper, that would be earliest. If you mean getting into actually making art as a hobby, I was 10, I think. My cousin is an artist, I used to go to her house all the time and I used to always bother her, [ask if] she could teach me how to draw better. She usually ignored me, but then eventually she gave me a book on anatomy. She asked me to sketch the muscles of the face like 10 or 20 times, something just to keep me busy. Then I actually did. When I came back I was like, "Okay, so what's next?" After that she started taking me seriously.
Addy: Amazing. Your work is very thematic, exploring hybridity and cultural identity. Why did you decide to explore these themes?
Bunmi: I moved to England, for school, when I was 16, and during sixth form we had to make 11 works for an exhibition. It was meant to be cohesive thematically. I started to create work around what I was experiencing, which was culture shock. I would make my work very instinctively. Whatever I was feeling or thinking. It's almost like I’d consumed so much information, all the research I’d done, all the experiences I'd had, and then they poured out into my work. At the time it happened to be about cultural hybridity and culture shock. Coming from Nigeria, a largely racially homogeneous country, to England.
It was little things like speaking to people, those little differences struck me really hard. At university, that's when my teachers started recommending people like Stuart Hall and all the artists who worked around cultural hybridity. I ended up writing my dissertation on Njideka Akunyili Crosby and ruby onyinyechi amanze.
Addy: Cool.
Bunmi: I looked at their works along the structure of the colonial pilgrimage, which was coined by Benedict Anderson. It's meant to describe the migration of African, or global South subjects, to European cities for education. That's what I was going through essentially, so I was looking at their works in relation to that. Njideka was born in Nigeria and left when she was about 16, and ruby I think went to the UK, then to America. I was just looking at the separations and connections.
That's really what I'm interested in, culture. In my work now, I feel like it's not even only about cultural hybridity, because it has gotten to a place where everything I enjoy, everything I love, like my other hobbies, are all spilling into my work. The portraits I did this year, they have become characters in an alternate universe essentially. I play Sims a lot, and that's all about creating worlds and stories. I'm also obsessed with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that's also about coming up with these narratives and seeing them play out in a world. That's essentially what my work centres around right now, everything's coming together.
Hell Is Other People by Bunmi Agusto
Addy: Totally, I think you can sense that you’re more confident in the work that you're creating.
Bunmi: Very much so.
Addy: You can tell by looking at some of your earlier work, and looking at your work now, there’s that sense of progression, you’ve hit your stride, which is really cool.
Bunmi: I'm glad you can see it. (laughs)
Addy: How has growing up in Nigeria, and then moving to the UK, shaped the art that you create?
Bunmi: What happened for me is that when I was in Nigeria, I didn't really notice the everyday things in life and what was unique in that. It's when I went to England that I developed a more removed anthropological gaze. That's what guides my work now, all these integral everyday things that I never noticed before.
Also, I feel like I started tackling foreignness before I went to England. My last name is Brazilian Portuguese, that’s from slave trade in Lagos. Lagos is also a Portuguese name as well. It was the Portuguese port in Nigeria and there’s still some Brazilian architecture from the returnee slaves. I've always wanted to explore that side. When I was in Nigeria my first name was Yoruba, then my second name, Portuguese. I've always dealt with finding connections between the cultures and noticing their stark differences.
Addy: Yeah, I completely get that, trying to navigate that cultural duality. Okay, next question. You work with mixed media and there are strong elements of Surrealism. What do you hope to communicate through your work?
Bunmi: When I started making work in England, I used a lot of mixed media and it felt very relevant, mixing materials, because my work was about the mixing of cultures. I feel like that's a very direct answer. (laughs)
I make my figures in pastel, with pastel pencils. They're clearly very different from their backgrounds, which are usually acrylics. I want this disconnection of the subject from the space, because that's what I’m like. Thinking about myself in relation to Nigeria then Brazil, then Portugal, then England, all these places, not being tied down to a place in particular.
I was in school in Nigeria when I learnt about Surrealism. Immediately I was like, "This is my movement. I don't need anything else." After I saw Dali and Frida, I thought, "It's cool. This is all I need." and I feel like you can see the Frida Kahlo influences in my small portraits. Besides not having busy backgrounds, just that confrontation of the subject.
Addy: Yes, definitely.
Bunmi: What's elevated for me now, is that I've moved towards Tropical Surrealism, which adds more of the climate into the picture. I guess Frida Kahlo's work is more along those lines than Dali. Again, my work just became tropical surrealist, I wasn't studying Tropical Surrealism, I let my work go in the direction it needed to go, and then I did the research to find where my work is situated in art history and contemporary art, and that's when I discovered Tropical Surrealism. The funny thing about that is, it originates from South America, so back to Brazil again. It's like there's something in me, like my ancestors are talking to me. (laughs)
Beyond Metamorphosis by Bunmi Agusto
Addy: You're returning to your roots.
Bunmi: Yes, and the roots are not just in Nigeria, they are in so many different places at this point, because my dad is Yoruba and my mom is from Benin, so in some of my works, you can see the Benin Kingdom influence, from the Edo art.
Addy: Oh, I didn't know that.
Bunmi: Yes, it's so many things at play.
Addy: That's so cool. Okay, let’s talk about London Grads Now, and also graduating in the middle of a pandemic. I really want to hear what your experience was like, getting ready for a show at Saatchi, which is huge, but then also graduating at a time when everything was in flux.
Bunmi: I think the whole year was just crazy. In January I was submitting my dissertation, and that was already so stressful, and then, we had our Open Studio in March, that's when I showed the first six portraits.
I'd been at CSM, at that point for like two and a half years, and they love experimentation, so over the years, they were like, "Oh, try making something with wood, try an installation, try sculpture."
That was all fine, but it got to a point where I wasn’t even confident just putting an image on a 2D object. When I got to third year, they asked us to make proposals for the Degree Show. I think I made an installation proposal, and anyone who has seen my work, knows that my strength lies in 2D work. My tutor was like, "Why do you lack so much confidence in this? For the Degree Show, if you need to make a wall full of paintings, do that.” Around that time, I just bought all my pastel boards. I was like, "Okay, I'm going to do this, let's do this.” that's when everything naturally just came together.
Addy: How was the Degree Show?
Bunmi: Immediately after the Open Studio, we went into lockdown, I think within that week. Our final submission was meant to be in the middle of May, and the Degree Show was also meant to be around that time. We then had to switch up everything we had done. Usually at the Degree Show, you present almost like a final project with all the resolutions, but we switched to submitting a digital portfolio with all the works we’d made in that final year. So it was more of a digital exhibition, as opposed to a final piece. It kind of changed the whole structure of everything.
Imagine the degree you've being working towards for the last two and a half years, then you just have to switch course. I submitted my work, put my all into it, and then we got an email from CSM that said that the Saatchi Gallery wanted to support graduating students during this time. They didn't say exactly how, they just said "Oh, send your portfolios to the Saatchi Gallery when you're ready." They didn't even give us a deadline, it was just like, "Whenever you're ready, just send it to them."
Addy: That's the most CSM thing ever. (laughs)
Lunchtime by Bunmi Agusto
Bunmi: I sent it off, I can't remember when. Then I got an email saying “Yes, we would like to have your work in the London Grads Now exhibition.” I didn't tell anybody for a while because I couldn’t believe it. I literally didn’t tell people until my works were on the wall.
Addy: That’s so crazy, I love that.
Bunmi: I still can’t believe it. When people say, "Oh, you showed at Saatchi," it doesn't hit me the way it should, I'm still in disbelief.
Addy: I mean, it's huge, honestly. I'm so glad that you got to do it. Okay, next question! Walk me through your creative process.
Bunmi: (laughs) It's very all over the place. Generally, my friends like to say that I can't play without it being work. Everything is part of my process, like going on a drive with my dad. Sometimes my dad takes me around Lagos, we're not going anywhere, we'll just drive around for me to take pictures and see things. From that to playing Sims, playing video games and watching movies. Compositionally I'm moving to a place where I don't like the direct portrait composition all the time. So watching movies, seeing a still and thinking, "I like the composition of this" gives me an idea.
My work comes to me in eureka moments. Usually, I start creating the initial image that pops into my head, then it changes as I'm working on it. It doesn’t live in my head for too long. Plus, when I'm making the work, I'm getting up to dance in between.
Addy: Do you like playing music?
Bunmi: Yes. I have 50 playlists.
Addy: Really?
Bunmi: When I say 50, people assume it's disorganised.
Addy: No, it's just a lot. (laughs)
Bunmi: Yes, it's a lot, but then when you open my laptop you don't even notice that it's 50, because I have my playlists in folders. There are romantic songs and within romance, it has all the different stages. Like friends getting to know each other, in love, breaking up, everything is separate. It is so organised, people think I'm crazy.
Addy: That’s so specific, especially the early stages of romance.
Bunmi: Yes. I have six stages down, I think.
Addy: Really?
Bunmi: Yes, I named one Entanglement.
Addy: Omg, I need to know which songs are in the Entanglement playlist, that's quite fun.
Bunmi: I'll send them to you.
Addy: Please do. Who and what are your greatest influences?
Bunmi: So many things. Visually, I'd say the Lagosian landscape, Surrealism and traditional Japanese aesthetics. There are different types like Wabi-sabi, the practice of Kintsugi, things like that. I'm very into Japanese philosophy in general. That also adds a bit of minimalism to my work, at times.
When it comes to narrative, my influences artistically are Ian Cheng, Toyin Ojih Odutola, ruby onyinyechi amanze and Charles Avery. When it comes to writing, Philip K. Dick, Nnedi Okorafor, there are so many things. The Sims.
People don't expect me to get my influences from where I do, because musically my most listened to artists are Aminé, Burna Boy, Billie Eilish, and Travis Scott. Then probably, Jay-Z.
Addy: It’s nice to listen to different genres, because obviously, Travis Scott is more fun, hip hop kind of vibes, whereas Billie Eilish will murder you. Her music is so dark.
Bunmi: I love that.
Addy: Different music for different moods. Do you have a favourite piece of work that you've created?
Bunmi: It changes very often. At the moment I'd say Bathtime, which shows the character, the Tropical Hybrid, which has these tusks made out of palms. I use different leaves occasionally, but that's generally the premise. The bathtub drawn in that piece is from Sims.
Bathtime by Bunmi Agusto
Addy: I'm looking at it now. Is that one of the expensive bathtubs from Sims?
Bunmi: Yes, It's from the Island Living expansion pack.
Addy: Nice. Are the curtains made of braids?
Bunmi: Yes, I like to put in braids as much as I can, because it's all a play on it all being inside my head. Even in Lunchtime, the window is shaped like an earhole. I add little things like that, just so you remember, this is a world inside my head, don't hold me to anything. (laughs)
The alien figure in the print in Bathtime, the whole concept for that, came from when I first started looking at the words alien and hybrid, used in cultural theory, and then I started thinking about those words a lot. I started thinking about them biologically and culturally. Since I watch a lot of Marvel, I thought, “What do the aliens look like in comic books?”
I also thought about Scooby-Doo, when they have the monsters and they unmask them and they're human. What's the difference between the monster and the human? All of them are just reconfigurations of the human form. They're all humanoid in some way. So [in Bathtime] I just reconfigured the human form, and that's my symbol for aliens in my work.
Addy: That's so interesting. In Bathtime, looking at the alien figure, it's like you've taken the lips and turned them clockwise?
Bunmi: Yes, the eyes are turned, the nose is upside down, the ears are upside down, the arms are the legs. In my works the hybrids look up to the alien as an ancestor, because I feel like you can't really have a hybrid without having an alien first.
Addy: That's really cool. I think one of my favourites is Baptism in Fluid Ground.
Bunmi: That's everyone's favourite.
Addy: (I’m so basic) It's honestly so good.
Bunmi: Thank you. Those rocks took me forever.
Addy: Also, The Regent.
Bunmi: You just picked the two favourites.
Addy: Well, I can see why they'd be really popular.
Baptism In Fluid Ground by Bunmi Agusto
Bunmi: So with The Regent, the hybrid itself is not called The Regent, but because of the crack in their face, they're the regent. In every generation there is someone who loses a segment of their face. It falls out and then reveals the alien underneath. That's the mark of the Regent. That's how you can tell who's ruling people, essentially.
Addy: So there's a whole narrative behind it?
Bunmi: Yes, I'm making it more and more elaborate. Generally moving forward, even including these works, they will all tie into this huge story.
Addy: That’s so exciting. What do you dislike about being an artist?
Bunmi: I think all the blurred lines. You can learn about the art world and about art, but it's always subjective. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. It's not entirely bad, but it's also not entirely good. Before I got into art, I was really into Math, so the switch was kind of tough for me. Art is subjective. Math is not.
Addy: You're going from something absolute to something that's very open-ended. I guess it's harder to navigate. Last question! Art can often act as a catalyst for change. How important is it for artists to respond to social issues?
Braided Tears by Bunmi Agusto
Bunmi: I think it's important for the documentation of history. Anyone who has studied Art History can tell you that people like Bartolomé Murillo, sometimes documented the lower social classes in Spain. Even then, just portraits did the work of documenting. But now that work is becoming more conceptual, and I think personally more interesting, so many narratives can be told. I feel like the increasing number of artists from different backgrounds responding to social issues in their work, is giving us a more diverse look at history, not just one perspective.
Addy: Yes, so true. Now for the rapid fire round! 🔥🔥 Romanticism or Pop art?
Bunmi: Romanticism.
Addy: Crushed velvet or tweed?
Bunmi: Crushed velvet, that's the Benin Kingdom coming through.
Addy: Summer or winter?
Bunmi: Summer.
Addy: Heathers or The Breakfast Club?
Bunmi: The Breakfast Club. I haven't even watched Heathers.
Addy: Really?
Bunmi: Yes, I feel like I know so many of the references, I just haven't watched the movie.
Addy: Omg, you have to. Sims or IRL?
Bunmi: Sims, I guess, I don't know. Like, what am I doing?
Addy: The last show you binge-watched?
Bunmi: Girlfriends.
Addy: I feel like you would have been really young when that came out.
Bunmi: Yes, but I used to see it on DSTV.
Addy: You can only listen to one album for the rest of your life. Which one do you choose?
Bunmi: I feel like it has to be a Burna Boy album. Twice as Tall. My close second is The Greatest Showman soundtrack.
Addy: (laughs) Those are so different.
Bunmi: Exactly, this is me. Very disparate things inside one vessel. (laughs)
Addy: Bunmi, thanks so much for doing this interview with me! I hope you’ll like it once it’s up.
Bunmi: I'm sure you'll do me justice.
For more amazing artworks, check out Bunmi’s website here!