Lost Years 2 - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Restoration, Mixed Media, 2024

Paul Ayihawu  

In 2020, amidst the lockdown's intensity, my art journey ignited professionally. With ample time to delve deep, I explored figurative painting and abstract drawings until early 2022. I created a different series of paintings, one standout series, "Black, Bold, and Beautiful," celebrated the radiant essence of black women through six vibrant portraits clad in Ankara suits. While one found a home with a collector in Tel Aviv, the rest lingered in my studio.

Two years on, a spark ignites within me to revisit this series, infusing it with the evolved narrative that aligns and fits into the conversation my works now engage in as a Contemporary Gospeller. The notions of “Restoration and restitution" weigh heavily in my heart, reflecting on personal and global scales.

While global discourse focuses on returning stolen artefacts from Africa back to their origins, my perspective delves deeper into the restoration of lost time and purpose. My point of view on Restoration and Restitution is from this notion that man can lose years of his life in futility, and when the time of profit comes, it occurs mostly at the brink of life.

A profound scripture, "I'll restore the years that the locust has eaten," resonates deeply, offering a beacon of hope amidst perceived futility. When I read this verse, it distinctly jumped out at me. Wow! Years can be restored! There is hope!

To make this revisiting more contextual, I look out for material which can be regarded as “used-up", “less-value", or “wasted" - then it appears to me that Jute sack fits into this context! The Jute sack stands for the lost years of glory, having exchanged hands from one country to another before ending up in my studio to take a new life, different from what it has been used for.

Thus, the series finds renewal through the symbolism of jute bags, embodying years wasted and repurposed. I incorporate these jute bags as backgrounds and use traditional collage techniques to weave them together. It's a way of saying that even when things seem lost or broken, there's always hope for renewal and restoration. And it's not just about art – it's about life, about finding light in the darkest of places, about embracing new beginnings.

The paintings transcend their past, echoing the universal truth of redemption and renewal. Just as my art finds new life, so too can we all reclaim lost years through the pursuit of divine restoration.

It's a journey fueled by a refusal to accept the status quo and a hunger for spiritual abundance found in the Light of Christ. This is the essence of true restoration – a journey from darkness into the vibrant newness of life.

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