Tunji Adeniyi-Jones: Between Motion and Stasis
Aurella Yussuf examines the impact of travel and isolation on the work of Tunji Adeniyi-Jones
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’ series of watercolour paintings in Astral Reflections appear as tiny kaleidoscopic portals into another realm. Limbs and faces are camouflaged in organic, fluid shapes – an arm here, a foot there, an eye peeking out from a dense configuration of watercolour and acrylic brushstrokes. Pencil and ink neatly delineates the figures from their lush surroundings, but at times there is distortion from the bleed between adjacent segments of ink and paint, in the same way that a life cannot be compartmentalised from settings and experiences.
Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Devotion Ritual, 2021 Watercolour, ink and acrylic © the artist. Courtesy White Cube
Adeniyi-Jones describes spending most of the last eighteen months in periods of ‘stasis’. Although based in New York, the artist was accustomed to splitting his time between the US, the UK where he grew up, and Nigeria where his family origins lie. The Covid pandemic abruptly interrupted the relative freedom of travel that was such a characteristic part of his global, diasporic identity.
Moving through the world became a discontinuous, laboured process, with many phases of delay and even standstill. This forced stillness has slowed his pace and required the artist to turn his gaze inward, and in doing so his work has become deeply rich and complex. The ‘reflections’ in the title suggest an act of interiority, the process of facing one-self, signalling the artist’s emotional journey all whilst not fully revealing himself.
Recalling being stuck in isolation in a hotel room in Mexico, Adeniyi-Jones sat with his paintings for longer than he usually would, reworking pieces that in another time he would have discarded. ‘Two Red Figures Interweaving’ (2021) is textured with the pilling of paper that has been scraped, markings that reflect an attempt at erasure, leaving behind the presence of old wounds or memories.
‘There is distortion from the bleed between adjacent segments of ink and paint, in the same way that a life cannot be compartmentalised from settings and experiences.’