God's Chisel in the Hands of the Carver: An Esoteric View of Joseph Alufa Igbinovia

Abstract

The idea of the supernatural influence in the acts of humans in the past and present is indisputable. It is not in contention that beside God, there are divinities, which he created to support humans in their odyssey on earth. The supreme God, the divinities and spirits make up the ethereal world and in their various projections exercise some influences in the life and careers of their chosen persons or devotees. Religion and creativity are two major aspects that the supernatural influence has been popularly expressed. Creativity is not limited to the league of the ‘creative artistes’ in spite of the fact that the people commonly ascribe creativity to the practice of the theatre, literature and fine arts. Architecture, fashion design, interior decoration, carpentry, culinary and a number of other professional practices fall within the domain of creative endeavors. What is unique about the creative artiste is that he or she has a more robust influence of the supernatural or muse. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine how the artist is inspired by the supernatural in the process of his or her artistry and how he or she responds to this extra-terrestrial impartation in the creation of his or her works. In particular, Joseph Alufa Igbinovia, an African carver, has been discussed and analyzed from the perspective of esoterism. The theoretical framework that has been adopted in this study is artistic communication theory (ACT), which is a means by which artists communicate their messages to the society. Artistic communication refers to a method of communication that uses a wide range of artistic endeavors such as music, drama, dance, speech making, painting, molding, carving and poetry to communicate messages to the audience, which is the hallmark of African art.