Tj Benson
TJ Benson is a self-taught visual artist and photographer based in Kaduna, Nigeria. He started training in drawing and photography with his father, a multidisciplinary artist and photographer who bought him a Kodak film camera before he passed just before Tj’s eleventh birthday. He resumed his practice in 2013 and got commissioned by a publisher to produce a photobook titled ‘Self.’ His work has been longlisted for the Kuehenyia prize and has been exhibited at the Institut Francais, Abuja, Photocarrefour, and the Alliance Francaise, Lagos.
In engaging the theme of the project, I thought to address the different borders we encounter, both geographical but also mental as how we navigate these borders shape our experience. There can be no contending with borders without journeys and the images ‘Woman on the Bridge’ and ‘Wander’ speak to this. To contend with borders we may have to leave what we know.
There are also more abstract borders to engage with and it excites me to see young Africans reaching beyond the borders of time to relearn their nearly disappeared cultural heritage in ‘Seeing’. My work also covers with what ‘Rest’ means for the millenial body contending with borders and how storytelling and ‘Reaching’ for each other beyond the borders of our personal experiences ‘At the Border of thought’ can help us imagine better futures.
Our paths are different but the journeying is similar and however different we might me, there might be something familiar to find in the face of a ‘Stranger Outside Town’. Borders can be the place we wait for something to come come to us or for change to happen ‘Longing’ or a place we can rest and reconfigure our strategy ‘A Body will Always Bend into a Story.’
I interpret ‘Nightman’ as the custodian of dreams at the borders of consciousness and sleep.
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- Gallery Item
Night Man
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Nyanya, F.C.T.
There are more abstract borders, no less important but often neglected. The borders of our consciousness is at best speculated but also crucial to our being. We must learn about our shadows and study who we are in our dreams.
Longing
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Minna, Niger State
Most of my life has been spent on the edge, waiting for something to find me or rescue me. This edge is often a metaphysical boundary, or border that keeps me from that state of bliss and satisfaction. It used to be a source of anxiety but now it is a tool I wield towards the actualization of myself and fulfilling my own needs. And as time passes, I push it forward.
A Body Will Bend Into Stories
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Kubwa, F.C.T.
All borders ultimately, are imaginary, carried in our bodies. All borders are stories and we should know a body can always bend into a new story. The challenge is how we shift from what we know into what we do not know, the mental and sometimes physical ways we must negotiate with borders.
Stranger Outside Town
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Donga, Taraba State.
Our paths may be different but the journeying is similar and however different we might me, there might be something familiar to find in the face of a stranger. Our paths may be different but we can learn to respect each other’s’ journeys.
Reaching
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Malali, Kaduna
Breaching a border can be simple as this. Reaching out and taking someone’s hand. Perhaps we might find something of ourselves in the grip of the other. I am certain that this is the purpose of our lifetime on earth, to reach across our lives into the lives of others.
At the Border of Thought
Medium: Print on Inkjet paper
Location: Markudi, Benue State
Contemplation is probably one of the greatest gifts man has. The ability to pause, reconsider and reconfigure our thoughts to align with new information we have acquired. I pose this question to you, when last did you learn something new that changed your mind?
Rest
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Kubwa, F.C.T.
A border can be a place to pause and reconsider all we think we know about the other. Rather than despair about the limitation it poses to us, isn’t it wonderful to consider it as a site for rest?
Seeing
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Iseyin, Oyo State
Many young people starting breaching the borders of history to educate themselves on what wasn't given to them with modern tools like the internet. They have started reclaiming their cultures, to separate what is actually real and true from the pseudo-African culture short sighted people always refer us to in leaps of ignorance, a colonial legacy preserved through neo-colonialism and utter abandonment of truth. I believe this, more than any slogan or chant or agenda will give us a sense of identity and belonging to this nation state. Culture must evolve but there would always be lessons to learn when we look back to the past, to an older way of life.
Wander
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Donga, Taraba
Perhaps we need to become like children again to perceive the world in fuller detail and view every journey as an adventure. Ultimately journeys change us and age us, but I feel it is possible to shed our biases and return to the state of childlike curiosity.
Woman on the Bridge
Medium; Print on Inkjet Paper
Location: Old rail bridge, River Benue, Markurdi, Nigeria.
The first thing to consider when engaging with borders is that they always require a journey. We can remain in our bubbles and conjure theories about who or what waits on the other side, but we can never really know for sure until we cross that bridge from what we know into the ‘other’.