Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) at The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
AGBS believes that art belongs to everyone and should be accessible to all.
Message![[untitled] from Nigeria Notebook series by Wura-Natasha Ogunji Image: Wura-Natasha Ogunji, [untitled] from Nigeria Notebook series, 2011. Mixed media collage, 7 ½ x 9 ¾ in. Collection of Art Galleries at Black Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Antonio C. La Pastina and Dale A. Rice, 2025.006. Photo courtesy of Mark Doroba.](https://assets.artworkarchive.com/image/upload/t_jpg_large/v1/user_62898/Wura17_Cover_xccqmr)
- Wura-Natasha Ogunji
- [untitled] from Nigeria Notebook series, 2011
- Mixed Media Collage
- Inv: 2025.006
Lagos, Nigeria-based artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji made these two artist books for the ongoing Nigeria Notebook series. The school composition books are filled with written observations, drawings, and photographs recorded during her travels to Nigeria, the first of which was in 2011. They record her experience of how identity shifts and perception transforms as she moves through a place that is both familiar and new.
One spread in the 2011 notebook features a performance score in which Ogunji sweeps the shape of her body’s silhouette into the ground. It reads: “Dig into the earth for this place to remember me, and me this place.” Here, Ogunji explores how identity is shaped by place, memory, history, and power, focusing on the physicality, endurance, and gestures of women in public spaces.
- Javier Robelo
- Attribution: Collection of Art Galleries at Black Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Antonio C. La Pastina and Dale A. Rice, 2025.006
