We recently connected with Arit Emmanuela Etukudo and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Arit Emmanuela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The biggest risk I’ve taken… so far, was packing up all of my belongings and moving to the UK for 2+ years. I graduated from college a year prior and was having trouble finding a job as an artist, as it goes. One day I decided that I didn’t need to be where I was anymore. Things around me felt stagnant and uneventful, I wasn’t thriving in the ways I knew I could. So on a whim, I applied for an MFA. Once I got in I immediately decided that nothing would stop me from getting there. As a person with severe social anxiety, the thought was absolutely terrifying, but this was the type of discomfort I needed to get out of my stagnancy. 4 months later I was in a new continent, in a country where I knew no one and no one knew me. I could be as great as I wanted to be and I committed to doing just that. I consistently shoved myself out of my comfort zone, put myself and my art out there every chance I got. Everyday was my day of “Yes”. “Do you want to present your work?”, “Do you want to lead this workshop?”, “Do you want to apply for this internship?”, “Do you want to come to this party?”. I said yes to everything. Yes, there was a lot of stumbling, moments where my anxiety got the best of me and I wanted to give up. Instead, I booked another flight. I lived in France for 6 months. New culture, new language, new people. I recommitted to my goals and fought through exhaustion and my terrible pronunciations. Idid things I would never have done in my own country or my own language. I sang and performed on stages, spoke on panels, and exhibited my work internationally. Making that split decision to just get up and go started my art career as it is today. It is one of my favorite decisions to date.
Arit Emmanuela, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a Nigerian American interdisciplinary self-portrait artist. My work examines the fluidity and metamorphosis of Black identities by transporting metaphysical moments with my body into otherworldly physical and digital spaces. Through moving image installation, digital collage, performance and poetry, created with self-portraiture, my work is communion between my body and its subconscious identities. My work is a meeting place for transformation and antiquity. Inspired by the Agnicayana ritual of recomposing Prajapati’s body after cosmogenesis (where the god shattered to pieces while creating the universe), my practice follows my existence being re-formed and healed through ritual evocations of the identities within me i.e, the shadow self and the inner child. My work is a mirror of the different dimensions created by my identities. The deconstruction of the known world and the act of the identity being the holder of dimension challenges the modern constructs of how the black body is allowed to exist. This inserts the narrative of Afro-frequency (the root of the black magical experience) and Afrofuturism (the product of the black radical imagination). I use the Black radical imagination as a tool to usher in a reimagining of existence, by rediscovering the ontology, mysticism, history, and transcendental realities that live at the root of African existence. My goal is to remove the mechanical west from within the body and replace it with the innate spirituality of Africa.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Pay artists more! That’s it really. Art holds so much value in our daily lives, yet artists are consistently underpaid or asked to work for “experience”. No more of this. Imagine the amounts of monumentally beautiful work that could be created if artists didn’t have to juggle multiple jobs in order to create in the first place. Artists deserve to be paid their worth, this should always be the first step when supporting artists.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
With that last answer, I know a lot of non-creatives wonder why artists don’t just quit. Life would be very dull and very unbearable without art and without artists. The simple existence of a creative person in your life (whether they are producing art or not) is vital. You take the creativity out of that person and its your life that will change. If any non-creative has ever felt a deep passion or love for something and then asked to give it all up, I think they would understand why I don’t quit. Anything can be quit, thats the easiest part. But I won’t give up just because someone can’t see my worth. I’ll simply move on to someone else, and then to the next person, until I find someone willing to support my art in the ways that I need. I think what stops a lot of non-creatives from understanding this perseverance is fear. People of afraid for themselves, they doubt their abilities, they give up on their dreams and then want everyone else to do the same. They call it “growing up” or “being responsible”. To me growth is moving past fear. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.AritEmmanuela.com
- Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/Arit_Emmanuela
Image Credits
Image 6 – Tom Platinum Morley