Nigerian artist Ayanfe Olarinde feels that the age-old tales from Yoruba folklore have been watered down as they moved from generation to generation. In response, her latest project "In The Beginning, And So It Goes" looks to bring those tales back to life, and to break through the noise to find the real stories. She tells writer Adedayo Laketu how her work aims not only to preserve history and culture, but also to teach us more about ourselves-and herself-as people.
On a scorching Monday afternoon in Lagos, I step into Ayanfe Olarinde's studio tucked away in an old repository on the Lagos Mainland. All around me are larger-than-life paintings from her latest solo exhibition, and she's clad in a paint-stained onesie, hard at work on multiple pieces simultaneously. When I ask how she's able to keep up with each one, she says it's how her mind works; it allows her to wander from one unfinished painting to another.
