YADICHINMA UKOHA-KALU

Saffron In The Desert - 2020

Saffron In The Desert uses saffron spice as a metaphor for psychological healing and hope. During her residency in Dubai, Yadichinma explored the Diera market and was drawn to the ubiquity of saffron spices, which she used as inspiration and as a material. Saffron ranks as the most expensive spice in the world and is fondly called "the gold of spices”. Exploring the indomitable quality of its golden-yellow essence, Yadichinma uses this raw material to apply to her paintings of landscapes and environments. Yadichinma uses the analogy of this pigment to examine the relationship between gold and the “golden moment of opportunity”,  the opportunity we have to turn the seemingly barren spaces of our minds into regenerative spaces.  Through this process, she begins to allow herself to fill these spaces with her own imagined beings and objects, reflecting on the private space of human emotions.