Dauda Mohammed is a graduate of Bio-chemistry from the University of Ilorin, Kwara State. But today, he has turned his attention to visual arts. A self-taught artist, Mohammed is embarking on a solo exhibition at the Signature Beyond Gallery Lagos, with the theme: Toys for Troys. He speaks to Edozie Udeze on a number of issues pertaining to the theme, what pushed him to switch over from Science to Arts.
Dauda Mohammed is a Fine Artist, well-versed in pointillism, application screw, Mosaic, acrylic and paints. You might as well regard him as an experimentalist, multi-talented visual artist. But that is not the main story. The main story is that Mohammed is a self-taught artist. A graduate of Bio-chemistry from the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, he switched over to fine arts years after graduation. Having spent a number of years undergoing self-tutelage, Mohammed, in 2015, abandoned his work as a banker to go into full time studio art practice. It is indeed amazing to see how pure Science and core Art have merged or fused together in the professional career life of Dauda Mohammed.

It amazing also that Mohammed’s art works are expressive and impressionistic, dwelling upon the core essence of acrylic on board, a medium that juxtaposes pointillism to produce very daring effusive visual pieces. Now as his solo exhibition holds at the famous Signature Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos, noted for its high regards for quality art pieces, Mohammed even shows a theme that is more confounding than ever. It is titled Toys for Troys, a theme that is a recourse into time; into history. The exhibition is thrilling, the works are enthralling and totally in consonance with the historical tenets it choses to explore.

In an interview, Mohammed held nothing back. “Yes I am a studio artist based in Lagos”. At Omole and Arepo areas of the city where he has his two studios his works speak for him. “I am from Kogi State, Okun speaking Yoruba by origin. The craze I have for automobile in my works is deliberate. Like the theme Toys for Troys, it is for the war of Troys in Europe in those days. The Troys fought many wars in Europe. These are the types of automobiles they used to prosecute their wars. It was the type of transport system of the time. So I went into a research to find out more about the working of those automobiles some of which I have now turned into art”.

So having turned them into toys, the inspiration blossomed into bigger dreams. “The king of Troy was prominent in the world. Helen of Troy herself was a Spartan in Greece. But she was the queen of Troy. The bottom line of the war was because of Helen, a wonderful woman. Yes, I prefer wood nails on board because I like working from the intangible to the tangible. I use computer first to do photo shoot before translating on to the board. I break it down to have a low resolution. If I make it so big it might not even be able to enter the gallery. But this way, I still bring out the beauty. When I then apply acrylic and paints, I still achieve the same desired purpose, the same result and effect”.

This way, Mohammed’s board canvases are large, always very expressive by which he applies limited colours. These colours help to define his medium. With assorted painted nails carefully and artistically screwed to the works, you can hardly diffuse the works unless you get closer to the board. He explains thus: “I use mostly primary colours. Most often I apply black colour to the background. For instance, this work here, if you step far off you may not be able to see it well. But when you step closer, it becomes clear. You can then see and appreciate more colours apllied to the work. This method is deliberate. The primary colours are used to produce secondary colours for total artistic effect”.

Limited colours thus applied give Mohammed’s works their peculiarity in terms of medium, form and signature. His type of works can hardly be imitated or copied. Each work takes serious time and efforts to produce. This sort of painstaking effort is usually employed by an experimentalist artist. The boldness of his canvases speak and appeal to lovers of visuals. You are quickly aroused as soon as you set your eyes on them. Take it or leave it, here you have a committed self-taught artisan, someone whose devotion to the art is euphoric, far beyond the ordinary. And having the privilege of being a scientist, helps to make his works empirically correct; somewhat believable and indeed convincing.

Mohammed throws more light: “I want the works to be seen better when you step closer. This is my idea. My choice of colours as well is deliberate. You can see that the primary colours are verbose. We have so many colours, but limiting it to only five colour helps me to achieve the purpose of this type of work. When you see the object by being closer you will see what I have been able to do and what the art piece is saying or conveying. Each work has its own peculiar nails. I try to get the nails to be uniform. By using the computer to do the first stage of my work, it then becomes easier to dissect and go on. I will then know where the red or black or yellow colours will be applied on the nails. For me therefore this is like a template. Then thereafter I mark it and nail it to the board. That way I totally achieve the effect I set to achieve. It looks a bit protracted or clumsy but in the end the result is exactly what you have set out to achieve. After I have nailed it on the board, I then begin to paint. In some others however I paint before I nail”.

As an artist he seems to be a carpenter as well. The level of craftsmanship he displays in his works proves how much dexterity he manifests. Hear him: “I do this to make the nails uniform as you can see. This way, you will never know these are nails until you get closer. I do not use black nails because the board is already painted black. Colour impressionism to me, helps to juxtapose all colours in one to bring out the essence of what I set out to do, in other words what I set out to achieve”.

Somehow, you might feel that there is a contrast between nails and automobiles. What is the meeting point here for an artist whose love for both as a form of combination achieve in the realm of the visual? These are fast moving vespa motorcycles otherwise known as piaggio more popularly used during the time of the Troys wars. For instance the work titled fast furious by the artist also appear furious in outlook. Even though most of the automobiles have no riders on them, a few that have, according to Mohammed, are done on purpose. They show how the soldiers and fighters mounted those automobiles to achieve successes in the war front. Some of them are known as Harley Davidson bikes, quick and fast while in motion. From the outlook of the ten works mounted for the exhibition, you could see the aura they achieved inside the gallery and inside the minds of viewers.

While visitors move from one piece to the next. There was this glow on their faces. It was clear that Mohammed who is doing his first solo show has captured the attention of the public. For in these works, you encounter unique displays of colours, you feel like touching the vespas and embracing them because of the level of collective nail paints on acrylic. They actually looked highly irresistible and attractive. Mohammed likes his colours to show depth and some sort of peculiarity. They show true reflections and seriousness. “If you look at this black colour here in the background, it shows depth”, he explains, pointing. Where you have yellow, blue and milk colours all put into one; the feel you get is that of love and coolness. As an artist, Mohammed knows how to apply impressionistic combinations to bring out the exceptional desires of his works.

So where you have people on bike, where you have wood nails or large boards, acrylic and paints all in conformity with Troys serving as toys to bring out the old memories of yesteryears, what you quickly recollect is an artist whose level of seriousness towards art is purely to make a statement. This is a statement that is billed to come in series and in different stages which all the same distinguishes him from the rest. This is why Mohammed whose earlier dream to read medicine was truncated has chosen to emboss his therapeutic aura on large boards and canvases.

More so, his colours are healers. His works beckon. His ideas embody health. There is also this love to use colours to heal and to embrace and to welcome people. So Toys for Troys comes to heal the wounded of the past, asking queen Helen of Troy to chill. Besides, he has done lots of works with sands. The effect is that he moves from one medium to the next. He’s still on the course of movement from one experiment to the other. His love for sand works is indescribable. It gives him a deeper feeling when he reduces the size of sand for the desired impact. When sand is applied, it gives him a smaller space to place in his studios. “I have love for pointillism and one of the works here as you can see is on pointillism”.