Visual Configurations and Projections of Self between the Mythic and the Everyday Part 1
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
“Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”
A collage of Falola book and memorabilia images chosen to emphasize an understanding of some of the most salient qualities projected by Falola iconography.
The image selection and organization are inspired by Buddhist mandala technique and possible theoretical interpretations in which diverse images of human forms inspired by the same historical figure are used in evoking abstract concepts in a variety of symbolic visual settings, facilitating contemplative identification with the values the images crystallize.
Abstract
This essay examines the immediate and more distant yet strikingly illuminating implications of the use, in his books and memorabilia of him, of artistic images of polymathic scholar, writer and institutional organizer Toyin Falola, exploring these images within an intercultural context, generating a global nexus in relation to their proximate African frameworks.
The essay initiates what is likely to be a new field of study, Falola iconography, the study of values relating to images of Toyin Falola, part of Falola Studies, the investigation of the life and work of the scholar, writer and academic entrepreneur.
I have identified the artists responsible for the images when I could get their names from the books.
Creating an Imagistic Universe
Toyin Falola, with the aid of photographers and artists, has been making a point of placing his artistically rendered image on the covers of a significant number of his books, and pictures and art of himself, alone or with others, in the interiors of those books. Others have complemented his efforts by doing the same thing in books about him and memorabilia associated with him.
Some of these are realistic images, doing nothing more than projecting an artistic likeness. Others do more, suggesting symbolic values by depicting Falola in contexts that tell a story which may be interpreted as visual complements to the scholarly explorations in the books.
We see him on the cover of his Daily Life in Colonial Africa, 2024, elegantly dressed in a Yoruba shirt, face shaped by a stylish white beard, seated as a trader in front of his wares in an African market.
He is also depicted, in his Milestones in African Literature, 2024, in art by Getty Ekele and Michael Effionayi, responsible for the various images in that book. He is again sporting that white beard and those Yoruba clothes, seated under a tree, talking with children seated in a circle around him, as the tree’s shade covers speaker and listeners.
