Orry Shenjobi’s immersive installation explores prayer, memory, future of Nigerian craft

The Nigerian-British artist brings Yoruba and Benin carving traditions into conversation with contemporary design in a site-specific exhibition at New Culture Studios, Ibadan.

AN installation by Nigerian-British multidisciplinary artist Orry Shenjobi will transform New Culture Studios in Ibadan into an immersive environment exploring prayer, cultural memory and the future of Nigerian craft.

Titled ‘Àdúrà Lẹ́rẹ̀,’ the exhibition brings together traditional carving, sculpture, furniture, stained glass, photography, sound and scent within a structure known as the Bamboo Dome.

Opening on November 12, 2026, and running until May 12, 2027, the project marks a new direction in Shenjobi’s practice, bringing her background in product design into closer dialogue with traditional Nigerian making and collaborative, site-specific work.

The exhibition takes its name from a Yoruba phrase meaning “there is reward in prayer”. Shenjobi interprets it as “prayer is the foundation of everything”, a sentiment rooted in a prayer her late grandmother offered. Catholic imagery, including a series of Stations of the Cross, informs the installation, while the Dome’s architecture draws inspiration from the Dominican Chapel in Ibadan. However, Shenjobi makes clear that the structure is not intended to function as a religious or sacred space.

Instead, ‘Àdúrà Lẹ́rẹ̀’ invites visitors to consider how inherited beliefs, materials and traditions might acquire new meanings in contemporary life. The Dome provides a framework for a range of works, allowing the artist to bring together her interests in craft, design and storytelling without prescribing how audiences should move through or respond to the space.

The project grew out of Shenjobi’s artistic residency at New Culture Studios in February 2026, when archival research into Ibadan’s history helped shape the exhibition. Founded through the vision of the artist Demas Nwoko, a member of the influential Mbari Club, New Culture Studios has long been conceived as a space for artistic expression and cultural exchange. The exhibition extends that legacy by centring community, collaboration and local knowledge in its approach.

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Working with traditional carvers from Benin and Ibadan, alongside local artisans, writers, musicians and curators, Shenjobi draws on Yoruba and Benin carving traditions and locally sourced materials. Her multidisciplinary practice spans collage, painting, glasswork, sculpture, photography, furniture and installation, with each element contributing to an environment that moves between the personal and the collective.

Sustainability is central to the project, which asks how design systems are shaped by use, memory and culture. Rather than treating traditional craft as a remnant of the past, Shenjobi considers how established methods of making might inform contemporary design and offer viable frameworks for the future. In doing so, the exhibition responds to the erosion of traditional practices while exploring how objects and shared spaces can sustain cultural knowledge across generations.

“As my practice has developed, I have become increasingly interested in what we inherit, what we preserve and what we choose to build from it,” Shenjobi says. “I look at how stories, materials, objects, images and ways of making can carry memory and meaning while also taking on new forms.”

Her Nigerian-British heritage is embedded in the work’s material and conceptual language, with questions of identity and cultural continuity emerging through both personal histories and collective experience. As her practice expands into three-dimensional and experiential environments, Shenjobi continues to explore how art and design can create spaces where private memory becomes part of a wider public conversation.

The exhibition will also feature artist talks, readings, book launches, workshops and film screenings, extending its emphasis on education and community participation beyond the installation itself.

Curated by Anthony Ogochukwu Agbapuonwu, with Tobi Alexandra Falade as assistant curator, the programme builds on Shenjobi’s socially engaged practice and her interest in creating opportunities for shared learning.

For Shenjobi, ‘Àdúrà Lẹ́rẹ̀‘is both a tribute to inherited knowledge and an experiment in what that knowledge might become. By bringing traditional Nigerian craftsmanship into an immersive contemporary setting, the exhibition proposes that preservation need not mean keeping culture unchanged. Instead, it suggests continuity as an active process, shaped by collaboration, adaptation and the possibility of making something new from what has been passed down.