Thorns of Tree artwork created to tackle tree, wildlife extinction

THE Ondo State Goodwill Ambassador For Environment, Ms Olayemi Olapeju, in collaboration with art gallery director, Ms Bolajoko Taiwo and artist, Charles Akeredolu have created a conceptual artwork entitled ‘L’Extinction,’ from thorns of trees to tackle trees and wildlife extinctions.

The trio created ‘L’Extinction’ artwork from the large thorns that grew on silk-cotton trees, which was discovered by late Chief J.D. Akeredolu in the 1930s for the invention of miniature sculptures known as thorn carving.

While distributing thorn carvings and tree seedlings to students of Government School at Owo Palace arena, artist and son of the late Chief J.D Akeredolu, Charles, described ‘L’Extinction’ artwork as an environment concept, just as he made it known that the thorns used were supplied by the Ondo State Goodwill Ambassador For Environment, who also planted some trees ahead of the art creation.

He stated further that Ms Olapeju provided the thorns they used from endangered thorn trees, while Ms Bolajoko provided two wildlife-themed yoruba ‘Opon ayo’ board games from her gallery where they put 12 uncarved thorns that they named as ‘L’Extinction.’

While creating on-the-spot elephant-themed miniature sculptures, Akeredolu allowed the kids to have interactive sessions with him on the shapes they wanted for the sculptures.

He told the audience that rather than subjecting them to see a finished artwork without knowing how it was carved, he allowed their participation in the creation of the miniature sculptures to bring more live event to the set of L’Extinction.

He further explained that tree planting exercises will hold whenever L’Extinction is created to fulfil the art objective, which, is millions of trees planting and the thorns of trees for the creation would be provided by Ms Olapeju, who is the Ondo State Goodwill Ambassador for Environment with L’Extinction inscribed on each thorn.

“L’Extinction artwork is not a joke, it’s priceless and is the world’s most expensive tree with a price tag of N250 million for each thorn and the proceeds will be donated to ten charity organizations to plant millions of trees and for wildlife conservation, he disclosed”.

In his speech, The PRO and Chief Museum Education Officer of the National Museum, Owo, Mr. Rotifa Ayobami Samson, lauded the concept of L’Extinction.

He said that the tree planting and interactive session with the children were parts of the rare aspect of L’Extinction and this unique art piece would not be static artwork, but an evolving collector’s item that responds to live inputs with viewers controlling and dictating the course of the artwork set-up.

Ms Bokajoko Taiwo, who provided the Yoruba opon ayo wooden board from her rare art collections, said that the opon ayo board used for displaying the thorns were rare and carved in wildlife-themed shapes to depict the plight for wildlife conservation.

She also pointed out that meeting points for playing the traditional ayo opon game is usually under a tree, which also highlights the millions of trees planting awareness.

Ms Olapeju, in her goodwill message, lamented on how the world trees are declining and that more than a third of all tree species are at risk of extinction.

She explained that deforestation is devastating for the climate, and the number of threatened trees and wildlife are high, so we must all put actions together for millions of tree planting exercises and wildlife conservation.

“Please ensure that you all plant and nourish the tree seedlings given to you today and keep the thorn carving gift items for posterity for your future generations to view” she instructed the kids,” she said.

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