‘Colour Me Cultured’ is a portrait series depicting young Nigerian women who adopt unconventional aesthetics, including vividly coloured hair and expressive forms of adornment. Through these choices, they challenge dominant notions of femininity and propriety, asserting autonomy over how they are seen and understood.

 

Central to the work is a visual paradox: the colours embraced by these women are often derived from Dutch Wax fabrics, widely regarded as emblematic of West African cultural identity. While these palettes are culturally familiar, their application beyond traditional contexts is frequently met with resistance or dismissal.

 

By repositioning these colours on the body in unexpected ways, the series interrogates the boundaries of what is deemed ‘proper’ or ‘cultured.’ It suggests that culture is not fixed, but continuously reshaped through individual expression.

 

‘Colour Me Cultured’ ultimately proposes that acts of self-styling are valid sites of cultural participation, rather than deviations from it