CHICAGO — Grief comes in many forms: It can be a warning sign inside you, or a quiet voice telling you that something is irreversible and that only you know how wrong it is. In the work of artist Bimbola Akinbola, Island of Sorrownow on view at the Romain Susan Art Foundation, Sorrow is a lonely place, with back-to-back beach chairs and crushed aluminum cans. For Akingbola, Sorrow Island is a place of relief and sorrow, a place of mourning and remembrance.
Roman Susan opened in 2012 in a mere 280 square feet on the ground floor of a flatiron building. The space itself is made up of sharp diamond-shaped angles and expansive storefront windows, and has hosted more than a thousand art exhibitions. Island of SorrowIn the center of the gallery, a 400-pound square of sand is placed. Scattered on the sand are flattened cans of Sadness Tonic, footprints facing in opposite directions, a small palm tree, a red Coleman cooler that the artist used in his youth, and two beach chairs with woven portraits of Akinbola; another palm tree is placed in the corner. Next to the window is a postcard cubby and a small mailbox so visitors can send postcards to the artist from the island.
Based on family photographs, Akinbola’s portraits are made by crisscrossing strips of woven leather from chairs that bisect the artist’s loved ones, both hiding and highlighting them. The white leather strips, representing the pure white of a shawl or dress, partially obscure the old man’s deep ochre eyes, but the same line and color contrast also draws the gaze to the eyes that look back at the viewer. On both chairs, faces and figures hover in the line of sight, making it difficult to tell who is looking back and whose hand is reaching out. The sculptural form of both the chair frame and the woven leather painting, both untitled and devoid of text, mimic the swirl of memory in times of grief.
While the exhibition is a response to an intensely personal period of mourning in the artist’s life, it is also poignantly universal. When a loved one is lost, the place where they once belonged becomes empty. These missing loved ones may come and go in memory, but can these moments be named? Can we inject reality with what they mean to us? Words can never express it. These are private meetings that exist within the vaulted arches of each person’s heart. This is Island of Sorrow.
Bimbola Akingbola: Island of Sorrow The exhibition is on view through July 7 at the Roman Susan Art Foundation (1224 W. Loyola Ave., Chicago, IL). It is organized by the institution.
