Ife draws inspiration from the Yoruba concept of Egungun—the ancestral spirits that manifest in masquerades. Ife calls this project ‘Agba’ and it is the first-of-its-kind digital masquerade that reimagines the ancient Egungun tradition by the Yoruba people; bringing design and neural networks together to preserve our cultural stories.
Drawing major inspiration from my Yoruba roots and the concept of “Egungun”, a belief that our ancestors are forever with us and from time to time, they will physically manifest in form of Masquerades.”
Ifedolapo continues, “The first Digital African Masquerade - Agba For so long now, many entities have systematically held us down and severed our ties to what makes us unique, but our resilience as a people forever keeps us energized in whatever little corner of the earth we may find ourselves. However, in this new age of technological advancements, it is imperative that we, as africans, need to evolve with the times. We need to do this without jeopardizing the richness of our culture and traditions that have been borne and passed down from eons of joy, pain, discovery, innovation and persistence of our ancestors. My solution, Agba, is a first-of-its-kind digital masquerade with a neural network trained on esoteric African knowledge from across the continent and tribes of Alkebulan.”
This project is a product of collaboration between Ifedolapo Arolawun - Creative Direction (@ifeofdesign), Lexx Abbey - 2D Sketch Artist (@lexx_abbey_official), David Fabian - 3D Sculptor (@fahbz), and Davies David - Animator (@Hidrawfx)
