“One of the tenets of my art practice is to preserve and celebrate Yoruba culture and spirituality.” – Oluseye  

Nigerian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist Oluseye has travelled the world, immersing himself in regional pockets of the African diaspora. His work connects the dots of ancestral traditions and ushers them into the sphere of contemporary art, presenting a depiction of Blackness that feels both sacred and complex. Inspired by mẹ́rìndínlógún, a Yoruba divination ritual, Oluseye’s new installation Orí mi pé is on view now at the AGO.  

In 2024, Oluseye embarked on a life-changing residency at Instituto Sacatar in Salvador, Brazil. Arriving with plans to document his experience of mẹ́rìndínlógún, he would instead recreate a dramatized version of the ritual, symbolizing his spiritual journey and featuring some dear friends he made during his trip. This video, along with 16 large bronze cowrie shells resting atop a hand-carved walnut divination tray, make up Orí mi pé – Oluseye’s first-ever major installation at the AGO.               

Mẹ́rìndínlógún is a Yoruba ritual with roots in West Africa. It was brought to The Americas by enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, making its way to Brazil where it is locally referred to as O jogo de búzios. On a subject’s behalf, a priest or priestess tosses 16 cowrie shells on a divination tray, analyzing their formation in search of guidance from the Orishas (deities). Cowrie shells signify wealth and good fortune in Yoruba culture, and in the context of mẹ́rìndínlógún, the  shells represent the 16 Orishas believed to have created life on earth.   

Oluseye spoke to Foyer about Yoruba cosmology, his pilgrimage to Salvador Brazil, and the multifaceted meaning of the phrase “Orí mi pé.”   

Installation view, Oluseye: Orí mi pé, February 15, 2025 - July 15, 2026, Art Gallery of Ontario. Artworks © Oluseye. Photo © AGO.

Foyer: When did you first come in contact with the mẹ́rìndínlógún divination ritual? What spoke to you about it, and when/how did you decide to bring it into your artistic practice? 

Oluseye: I first discovered it online in 2021. I had already begun the process of making 48 bronze cowrie shells that would  be  equivalent to  my weight, and with a monetary value equivalent to a line of credit I had taken in 2016 to ease my transition  into  full-time art practice. I was discovering more about what cowrie shells symbolize in Yoruba spirituality. This led me to the  mẹ́rìndínlógún. The meaning of the word is “four taken from 20,” which equals 16 –representing the primary Orishas who were significant in creating the world as we know it. In  this work, I explore notions of value, labor and spirituality in relation to my lived experience as an artist of Yoruba ancestry.  

Can you talk about the divination tray and what its carvings symbolize?

The carving depicts a syncretization of the spiritual, mythological, and biographical elements that have shaped my worldview and art practice including my Catholic upbringing, my interest in astrology, my Yoruba heritage and my ongoing exploration of African religions. 

The head at the top of the tray is an attempt to capture a portrait of my spiritual ancestry. I began by digitally fusing a photograph of me and an image of an Ife bronze head, an important icon in Yoruba culture. I knew that once the carving began, this portrait would take on a life of its own. I hoped it would embody and perhaps reveal my ancestral lineage including my grandma and my brother who both passed recently. I considered them guiding forces as I embarked on this project. 

The head also symbolizes the metaphysical concept of the ori — ones’s spiritual head, intuition and destiny. The inner workings of our minds and spirit are closely linked to the things we create and destroy with our hands, the physcial and the spirtual are one and the same, and the carving illustrates this idea. It depicts my spiritual head, which has intertwining dreadlocks and a pair of horns that morph into hands cradling a machete. In Yoruba culture machetes represent Ogun, the god of iron and war. I refer to Ogun often in my work because he is the deity who cleared the path for the creation of the world. I reference him as a transformative creative energy in many things that I do.

Installation view, Oluseye: Orí mi pé, February 15, 2025 - July 15, 2026, Art Gallery of Ontario. Artworks © Oluseye. Photo © AGO.

You created the video component of this installation while in Brazil. Can you share some of the details of your trip, and the inception story of the video?   

In late 2024 I was an artist in residence  at Instituto Sacatar in Brazil.  I had already started work on the divination tray before my arrival there , and  knew I wanted to create a video component to mirror the tray. I bonded very quickly with the Brazilian fellows in the program, the similarities between Yoruba culture and Bahia culture were so strong and we hit it off right away. I shared with them my idea to document  my own O jogo de búzios (cowrie shell divination) and they questioned my decision. They told me the  ritual should be a personal and sacred moment for me, and that there were tales of deities intervening in such recordings, cracking phone screens and scrambling signals. I began to think more critically about my plan. One of the tenets of my art practice is to preserve and celebrate Yoruba culture and spirituality so I was faced with the challenge: How to introduce something so precious within contemporary art without giving away its secrets.    

During  the residency, the head administrator, ​​Augusto Albuquerque took us to a sacred  river in a forest. He explained that people visit the site for healing and offered to bathe our heads in the water and offer some blessings for us. He did this for me, and there was something very simple and honest about hearing these benedictions in Portuguese that resonated with me. “Welcome to Brazil. May your creativity open up your path. May you find joy here.” 

I finally arrived at my decision to create a dramatized version of my divination experience. I had developed such a strong, special bond with the Brazilian fellows in the residency - Luma, Paola, João , and the administrator Augusto – it seemed fitting to  have these people I love so much be surrogates for priests and priestesses as they offered  blessings for me, the audiences that visit the show and all of humanity. 

Oluseye, 2025. Photo: Craig Boyko © AGO.

Orí mi pé translates to “my head is correct.” Can you unpack why you picked that title and share some of what it means to you both on a personal and artistic level? 

Orí mi pé is a Yoruba phrase used commonly by Nigerians but it is actually rooted in something very deep and spiritual. It translates to “my head is correct”, or “my head is complete.” However, it is  used colloquially to playfully – or seriously – jab at someone: Orí e o pé, which then means your head is not correct; you are not okay. In Yoruba, Ori translates to head, and we believe that the seat of our spirituality resides in our head; so, to say one’s head is not correct is to say something is not right with their spirit or destiny.  

I chose this name because I felt complete when I was making this work. I feel fulfilled in where I currently am in my art practice. It feels as though there’s a larger divinity or guiding force that keeps me safe, inspires me and is ensuring I’m on the right path. The round divination tray is also a reference to the cyclical  nature of life; these trays are typically circular. Artistically, I have come full circle since my first body of work, which was a series of  paintings, entitled Ori. Ten years ago, one of the paintings from that series was exhibited at the AGO in the basement as part of the programming for the Basquiat exhibit – it really is a full circle moment.  

Unintentionally I’ve come back to the concept of Ori but in sculpture, a medium I feel very sure about. It’s really about my personal life and how it intersects with my artistic and spiritual life, and how they are all feeding each other – I’m mostly at peace.     

Orí mi pé is on view now at the AGO on Level 2 of the AGO in the Murray Frum Gallery (gallery 249).   The installation is curated by Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, AGO.