Fatai Adewale

"ATA TI WON"
PA-FA09-01
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 Acrylic and Oil on Canvas,
 48"x48"

"ATA TI WON" (Yoruba-Nigeria) (2009),''ATA TI WON'' IS A PHRASE IN YORUBA LANGUAGE, MEANING THE PRICE OF PEPPER (or cooking ingredients) has gone up. This piece was actually done to highlight the benefit and the advantages of the marketplace as a major source of vital information in a rural setting. In our culture, we communicate primarily and majorly by oral means, and place value on what people say and on what we hear rather than what we read or find out through print or other information media. And whether by direct or indirect intention, everybody wants the power that comes from knowing and controlling vital information. Thus, the women in this piece are representational of the everyday market woman in a rural that have little or no access to this information media but still wants to get and disseminate relevant information amongst peers. the substance of their discussion is in the red pepper on their lips which is supposed to be in abundant supply in a market environment, but is not only in short supply also overly expensive. The pepper is representational of a very sensitive issue in a national economy that is supposed to have the commodity in abundance.