Valerie Fab-Uche has spent the majority of her life in Lagos, Nigeria. Danfo, as she is fondly called due to her “never stop, never settle” attitude and insatiable love for Lagos metropolitan life and street culture.
Artwork title: A cockroach cannot bring forth a butterfly
Medium: Mirror and sculptural installation
Description: An installation influenced by internal fear (tribalism) and external fear (racism) and its relationship to the common fear of cockroaches (also known as Katsaridaphobia). As human beings we are often afraid of what we don’t understand. We often perceive unfamiliarity as a threat, to our authority, our thinking and our beliefs: once it’s different, it is not “normal”. While gathering research for the project, the artist found that there are more commonalities between the life of a common cockroach and the average black man or woman. “A bird is an animal; a cockroach is a monster.”