Escapism often carries a negative connotation, framed as avoidance or retreat from reality. But when reality is defined by police brutality, systemic violence, and governance that fails its citizens, escapism then becomes a means for survival.
For a young Nigerian man, simultaneously vulnerable to state violence and blamed for sustaining it, withdrawal is not passive. It is strategic. In hostile environments it becomes a necessity. Especially when pressure accumulates and chaos saturates daily life, the question then shifts from whether to escape but to how and through what means.
Escapism offers two routes. One fragments the self through dissociation and excesses. The other converts internal chaos into external form. This distinction matters. Substance abuse multiplies damage by offering a temporary fix. An aloof state of being.
Making art redirects force and engages your mind to be present. Present on what is before you that you are doing with your hands. Like you’re drawn into another world. Brushstrokes mark continued presence despite surrounding collapse.
Constructed forms asserts that making remains possible when destruction feels inevitable. This reframes escapism from retreat into resistance. A refusal to surrender consciousness to forces that seek to break it.
“salvARTion: Art saved me” extends this logic materially. Upcycled denim sourced from Aba and Lagos markets, end-of-line cotton samples are repurposed through processes that dissuade the mind from occurrences around it. Painting , Carving, the art of rigorous making and distorted forms reveal how pressure reshapes structure.
Loose threads spin differently, granting each garment singular identity. Made by artisans in Nsukka to document transformation as a method: chaos reorganized, waste reassigned value, internal pressure given external form.