Artwork Description:

It, Amala Ojuelegba Plc., is a realistic/Onaism styled figure dominated acrylic on canvas landscape painting on the topic of good food. This is a realistic visual document on the processing of Amala, a popular Yoruba food eaten with ewedu, vegetable, egusi or any other suitable soup and stew with meat, and fish, among others. It is an outdoor scene from a popular Amala canteen at Ojuelegba, Surulere, Lagos. Four ladies are steering the nearly done Amala in a metal basin on a gas fired brazier by the roadside in the heat and heart of Ojuelegba. The whitish elubo (yam powder) had been mixed with boiling water and expertly steered and turned by the ladies before it evolved into the brownish edible low-sugar pulpy Amala. It usually hardens into a better edible form as its temperature becomes cooler. Apart from the four busy ladies doing the Amala rumble on fire, there are trays, plastic scuppers, big iron pots and stones on another brazier as well as another stone leaning on the sidewalk in the foreground. A small boy is playing with a plastic table right beside a plastic jerry can, while branded DVD jackets hang overhead in the immediate background. The DVD seller’s shop is right beside the Amala canteen. The titles and other details on the numerous DVD jackets were transformed into traditional Yoruba/African patterns, just like the creatively introduced traditional motifs on the sidewalk, dresses of the ladies and some other parts of the painting for aesthetic enhancement. It is a Realism work, creatively embellished with traditional Yoruba/African patterns in Onaism mode. Some visible large umbrellas behind the fence in the near background reveal the presence of market activities leading to added patronage for the Amala sellers. Buildings, figures, other objects and vehicles in the composition represent a good visual account of a commonplace mid-day scene at Ojuelegba. But, the subject matter dwells on the good food; Amala in the sunny tropical ambience of Ojuelegba. Forget about junk foods and other unhealthy stuffs in the arrays of cuisines available in Lagos and other parts of the world, just patronize and eat good and healthy foods such as Amala with delicious soups, stews, meats and fishes, among others, for a better world.