A creature of expression.
While evidence of learning through play exists, it’s not often that an artist describes his studio as a playground. For this reason, I was thrilled to take a look at Adébayo Bolaji’s ASC Arthouse studio, where the artist’s enthusiasm for experimentation directs his practice. “I lay the materials out, set up the canvases and let loose. Until, I feel led on what the deal is, and then we build” he says. With a line-up of acrylic, gold, graphite, oil pastel, ink, pencil, spray paint, textile and wax crayons arranged on the floor, Bolaji visualises all of the ingredients that are available to him and discovers accidental colour combinations which he then tests out in his canvases. Untangling ideas through visual stimulation, Bolaji explains he works best in “whatever is natural. If that’s mess it’s mess if it’s not then it’s not.” Jazz, with its complex rhythms and practice of improvisation, gets Bolaji to a needed place very quickly. And of course, there are those times when silence is golden. Maximising his energy and impulse, the artist works on various pieces at the same time, that’s of course when he’s not writing. I toured his ground floor facility in Croydon, London to learn how he translates gestures into statements and find out what activates Bolaji’s constant state of curiosity.