The art and business of luxury rugs
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here is no doubt that Nigeria has a strong presence in the global creative industry. Music, film, visual art, fashion, furniture are some of the industries that the country is thriving in terms of creativity. Recently, the world’s attention has just been drawn to what the country has to offer in terms of rug artistry.
Historically, rug artistry can be traced to 2, 500 years ago with the Persian carpet often regarded as a culmination of artistic magnificence. The Iranians were among the pioneer carpet weavers of the ancient civilisations, having achieved an excellent degree of perfection through centuries of creativity and ingenuity. The skill of carpet weaving is usually handed down by fathers to their sons, who built upon those skills and in turn handed them down to their offspring as a closely guarded family secret. To trace the history of Persian carpet is to follow a path of cultural growth of one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen.
In recent times, more cultures are embracing the concept of rug art by making the works of their artists more prominent as rug designs. Nigeria has joined this train. Center rugs can no longer be christened Persian as handmade rug manufacturers are now taking into cognizance the beauty of the African art. They are now giving a new dimension to the interpretation of Nigerian art by manufacturing rugs with the works of artists like, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Tola Wewe, Kolade Oshinowo, Nike Okundaye used as designs. It is an art expression of the emotion of the ideas of the painter and the rug weaver. It is a weave of both technical skill and an artistic view of the whole ensemble resulting in rare statement pieces of what has often been considered an art.
Two years ago, Quintessence Gallery Lagos hosted the first exhibition on rug art tagged ‘Africa on the Floor’. It was an initiative of the Swedish art gallery Modernafricanart. It was an avenue to give Nigerian artistes a new voice and medium of expression.
With this new concept, the Ministry of Trade and Investment must really take serious the Nigerian creative industry. Structures must be put in place to make this industry function the way it should so that practitioners can enjoy return on their investment; and also attract new investors. It should no longer be a soldier go, soldier come affair where there is no regulation. The creative industry has a huge potential for job creation. For instance, Nollywood is reputed to be a great employer of labour. The same can be said of the local furniture industry.
Nigeria is known to be a home to some of the finest craftsmanship in furniture. Benin, Osogbo, Ile-Ife are some of the towns where this rare skill abounds and there are clusters of artisans in these towns working day and night to produce exportable pieces of furniture. Works produced in these towns have become exportable statement pieces that have defined the emerging Nigerian luxury market.
Therefore, the ministry of trade and investment can no longer afford to close its eyes on what is happening in this sub-sector of the economy. It is important for it to start putting together parameters for the emerging luxury market, although it is currently small but it has a huge potential for revenue generation considering Nigeria’s demographics. And the fact that some pieces produced by local artisans are already finding in-roads into European and American markets.
The revolutionary concept of the Nigerian art industry no doubt is pushing contemporary art to emerge as a force in the country’s overall development; however, a lot of work still needs to be done to increase the appreciation of art and artist as well promoting and advancing contemporary Nigerian art. The National Gallery of Art and other governmental and non-governmental organisations can do much more to support artists to elevate visual arts to its place in the society. And government can also boost activities in the art industry through art collection policy.