About

Tunmi Da Silva is a Nigerian-American artist of Aguda descent based in Los Angeles, CA.

Artist Statement

I’m inspired by cultural and religious syncretism, the language of materiality, and the ways in which diasporic people preserve and adapt ancestral traditions to new lands, such as basket weaving and amulet-making. The works are charmed, and are metaphors for medicine. Taking inspiration from my natural environment, atmospheric conditions and surface tensions lack distinction. I’m also inspired by an analogous relationship between appendages and bodies of water. When the work is in the water, I try to maintain an aerial, sometimes galactic, perspective on submersion. I’ve lived my entire life in California, and I have a deep affection for Californian terrains, Black feminist histories, and iterations of West Coast hip hop. Ultimately, I’m concerned with the various perspectives of and on self-absorption.