(An Abridged Version of Prof Julie N.E.Umukoro’s Inaugural Lecture presented at theUniversity of Port Harcourt on February 15th 2024)
The central focus of this discourse is creation and re-creation. God the creator, as the
very essence of the creative force in our universe is the prime mover, who wields the magicwand to create by declaration, while man, His alter ego, is wired to use his resourcefulness toartistically re-create through imitation and creativity.
In other words, God Creates but man recreates and in that capacity, he is a creative artist suffused with the sublimity of the creativeforce. Leaning on the Christian worldview that God created man in His image and likeness, Esler(2016) sees “our ability to create and be creative as an expression of Him in us.”. Of the vastmultitude and variety of creative artists that abound in our universe, the focus of today’s lectureis the performing artist in his spatial domain of spatial illusion.
The spatial domain in this contextis the artist’s work-space, while spatial illusion designates the illusory content of performancewithin the artistic space. This discourse takes the liberty, therefore, to coin the following kindsof artistic work-spaces: the mystical space, the universal space, and the magical space. Themystical space in this case is the Garden of Eden, God’s workspace for creation. On the otherhand, the universal space is man’s workspace just as the magical space is the workspace of thetheatrical or performing artist.
Thus man’s artistic consciousness to build or to re-create thatunderpins this segment of our discourse is anchored on apriority – that foundational knowledgeof the ‘how’ the ‘whys’ and the ‘wherefores’ drawn on established dogmas that mobilize creativeactions. However, to accomplish these set objectives, man must do so, not by the flourish of suchmystical potent utterances of God, his benefactor, but by a persevering life of work and struggles”through the sweat of his brow.” (Gen.3:19). This involves experiential and experimentallearning processes; hence the vision of creation in the universal space has rested wholly onlearning and performance theories. Through the partnership of God’s creative spirit as thereactive agent in him, man, in his quest had, in fulfillment of God’s creation mandate, been
motivated to create or re-create with a handsome dose of discretion and imagination be it in the physical world or on the stage world.
Man’s prowess in creation is appreciated in his creative works scattered all over the universe where he has conquered space with spaceships of kinds, land with automobiles of kinds,and sea with ships of many designs. In making the universe his home, he has skyscrapers modeled on the biblical Tower of Babel and for longevity; he has a world full of antidotes. Man’s escapades of creation in the scientific world have moved from Dolly, the first cloned sheep to the world’s first ‘test tube’ baby in 1978. Electricity and recently, Solar energy, have greatly improved man’s living conditions in the universe. Satellites, the Internet, and celluloid have also created new paths in our communication styles.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong made history as the first astronaut to land on the moon. Talking more about man’s breakthrough concerning energy,China has recently announced the creation of an artificial sun! Quite often, man has been found to encounter mishaps in his quest for new creations, and very often, deaths and disasters occur.
There have been airplane disasters, shipwrecks, and even worldwide pandemics threatening the universe with extinction. The Corona-Virus saga of 2020 is a veritable case in point where man’s escapade has caused humanity great pain. The universe here is thus presented as the work spaceof man. In a further development, man, in his restlessness had created for his pleasure, the magical space -the stage – that phantom world of the theatre where he assumes the posture of a demi-god. Thus, like God his creator who fashioned him in His image and likeness, man did not stop at creating the phantom world of the theatre but, in imitation of God his creator, has created the performing artist in his own image and likeness! In his theatrical world therefore, man assumes the image of “creator” or producer.
By this token, the performing artist as demigod is creator par excellence in the magical space – the stage – .
. What then is the place of the Garden City of Port Harcourt in the artistic worldview of
performance in Nigeria today? Today, the Garden City of Port Harcourt, having been transmogrified into an artistic performance centre through the infusion of the artistic creative energies of performing artists, is paradoxically our perfect example of the magical workspace of the performing artist. As there are different kinds of creative artists in the Garden City of Port Harcourt, so there are available, different kinds of work-spaces, and each kind varies considerably from the other regarding the specificity of the kind.
This presents the Garden City of Port Harcourt as a hosting ground for a variety of creative artists, most especially the performing artist. Talking about performance spaces and grounds within the macro-space of the Garden City, We have the Council for Arts and Culture, the radio and television houses, the institutional-based theatres (universities and secondary schools), hotel courtyards, and auditoriums of corporate establishments, church yards or fields, professional theatres, cinema houses, civic centres, event centres, market places, beaches, water-fronts, river surfaces for regatta performances and indeed the open streets of Port Harcourt that hosted the annual Carnival– CARNIRIV – for seven consecutive years (2007-2014). This has in turn instituted the social grooming that has superimposed on the city of Port Harcourt the image of the mythical EDEN along with its aesthetic aura.
The Garden City of Port Harcourt as a terrestrial equivalent of the Garden of Eden is transposed and becomes for us the magical creative space. However, in contrast to Eden which presents only one supernatural being as Creator – the ALMIGHTY GOD- the creator image in artistic re-creation in Port Harcourt is provided by diverse art practitioners.Both gardens, in a metaphorical sense are playing spaces for either the mystical or magical experience accordingly.
However, in contrast, only one multi-talented Gardener, God, the supreme creative artist, tended the Garden of Eden while numerous specialists in their rights as artistic gardeners, today, engineer the artistic process in the Garden City of Port Harcourt. As professional agents of artistic creativity, they are perceived as splinter images of God’s creative essence who piece together their artistic ideas to create a composite whole – the complete picture of a dynamic artistic creation.
From these springs the new-class – performing artists – greatlyv enerated for their rare ability to practically re-create from imagination the illusory content of the dramatic performance. The performing artist rules supreme in his phantom world where he exercises his power to re-create through the interplay of WORDS, ACTION and MOVEMENT in SPACE. However, unlike the Garden of Eden with the embargo of the forbidden fruit, there is absolute freedom in the Garden City of Port Harcourt to eat or experience EVERYTHING; from the city’s culinary arts to its creative arts; and here MONEY as bait assumes the image of the SERPENT.
This thus brings to an end at this point, my epic intellectual journey, from the Garden of Eden to the Garden City of Port Harcourt.
Julie N.E. Umukoro
Professor of Semiotics and Performance Studies
University of Port Harcourt
