I Be You You Be Me

Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian American artist based in Washington, DC. He is known internationally for large-scale paintings, drawings, murals, sculptures and public art projects. Ekpuk considers drawing as the essence of his artistic expression. The artist pushes the boundaries of drawing as an independent art form by combining it with the Nsibidi system of symbols comprising a sacred writing system in the southeastern part of Nigeria.
I Be You, You Be Me features a pair of 6-foot tall cutout shapes of people’s heads. Shown in profile, the head on the left is covered in Nsibidi-inspired symbols inscribed in black against a white background. Facing it, the head on the right is exactly the opposite with white symbols against a black background. The visual dialogue is the result of the artist’s contemplation about the complexity of each person’s mind and the preconceptions people have about one another. This artwork is also an invitation to take the counterpart’s place in a dialogue for better understanding.
The artist stated, “The central theme of my work is the exploration of relationships, challenges and responses to changes that characterize the human condition. Of particular interest to me is Nsibidi, an indigenous African system of writing that employs graphic signs and pictograms to convey concepts. Inspired by these ancient signs, the forms in my works are reduced to basic essence resulting in script-like drawings, with which I express a variety of contemporary experiences. When combined with Nsibidi, these 'scripts' provide the background narrative to my compositions. Most often these narratives are better perceived when they are felt rather than read literally.”