Weight of Words by Mary Damilola Adesakin
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Thread on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 32 in
Year: 2025
Price: $2500.00 USD
Status: available
This Art piece depicts a man immersed in a newspaper, seated comfortably in his private library. Surrounded by shelves of books and the quietude of solitude, he finds himself both shielded from and invaded by the world outside.The newspaper, though held with familiarity, represents an overwhelming flood of information. Its headlines blur into abstract text, symbolizing the noise and complexity of modern media. Though the library is his sanctuary a space of learning,peace, and reflection the intrusion of the outside world through the paper suggests the inescapable nature of global events, even in our most personal spaces.
Why collect this work?
A broad, pale newspaper cuts diagonally across the compressed interior, turning an ordinary act of reading into a visible burden between private concentration and public information.
- Adesakin describes thread as a metaphor for connecting fragments of memory, identity and experience. Here, that stated concern helps frame reading as an effort to assemble meaning from scattered words and images, rather than proof of what the figure feels.
- The photograph shows the reader enclosed by dark shelves, while his mustard shirt forms the scene’s brightest mass. Fragmented lettering prevents the newspaper from delivering a clear report, shifting attention from particular news to the pressure of information itself.
- Catalogued as thread on canvas, the medium makes possible an image constructed through accumulated lines and bounded colour. In the photograph, these segmented passages sharpen the contrast between the figure’s concentrated pose and the paper’s visual clutter.
- Encountered as a textile image of print culture, the work links two systems of inscription: stitched marks and mass-produced news. That comparison gives this particular scene relevance to collections concerned with how information enters domestic life.
About the Artist
Mary Damilola Adesakin
Mary Damilola Adesakin is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: textile. Based in Ile-Ife, NG.
Nationality: Nigerien
My practice explores vulnerability, struggle, and resilience within both personal and collective contexts.
