In and Out by Deolu Femi
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Cardstock (paper)
Dimensions: 121.92 x 121.92 cm
Year: 2025
Price: $2000.00 USD
Status: available
“In and Out” is inspired by the Yoruba childhood game we played long before PlayStation, Xbox, or screens took over. It celebrates a time when play was real, filled with movement, laughter, and friendship. Through this work, I revisit the innocence and joy of those simple days when creativity lived in our hands and the open ground was our playground. Series Title: Before PlayStation and Xbox Artwork Title: In and Out Dimensions: 4 x 4 ft Art Type: Paper Layering (relief sculpture) Medium: Cardstock and acrylic Date: November, 2025
Why collect this work?
In and Out turns a remembered playground game into a tightly staged negotiation between bodies, rules and the ground beneath them.
- Femi identifies childhood memory and everyday Nigerian experience as central to his practice. Here, he specifically describes returning to a Yoruba game from before screen-based play, framing the scene as recollection rather than neutral documentation.
- The photographed composition places three figures around overlapping circles labelled “YELLOW,” “STOP,” “GREEN” and “RED.” Their bent knees, lowered hands and inward gazes concentrate attention on the diagram, while the central standing child interrupts the symmetry.
- The catalogue documents cardstock, acrylic and paper layering as a relief sculpture. That medium permits figures, clothing and drawn details to be separated into discrete planes, matching the game’s division of movement into named zones.
- This work can anchor discussion of how informal play carries shared knowledge. It preserves not only a game’s apparent rules, but also the bodily attention and group coordination through which those rules become social experience.
About the Artist
Deolu Femi
Deolu Femi is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: mixed-media (paper layering and paper quilling). Based in Lagos, Nigeria.
Nationality: Nigerian
My work is a reflection on memory, daily activities, experiences and the ways our experiences shape who we are.
