Ìṣura / Treasure

Ìṣura means “Treasure” in Yoruba. The series developed from my relationship with Adire and an ongoing question about what we learn to value—through material, memory, inheritance and experience.

Ìṣura, meaning Treasure in Yoruba, is an ongoing body of work that asks where value can be found beyond monetary worth. I work with fragments of Adire, coffee-dyed and distressed textiles, cutting, layering, fraying and reconstructing them across the surface. I am drawn to what these materials already carry — pattern, touch, labour, wear and traces of time — and to what happens when separate fragments are brought together.

 

At the heart of Ìṣura is a question that extends beyond the paintings: what do we consider worth keeping? We all carry things whose importance cannot easily be measured — memories, inherited objects, relationships, places and experiences that become more valuable with time.

 

Through cloth, I want the work to make those quieter forms of value visible, asking us to look again at what we inherit, what we lose, and what we might already possess without recognising it as treasure.