Oil pipe line vandalization (Published)
Oil pipe line vandalization is illegal activity of some fellows in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria crudely obtaining, petroleum products for self-aggrandizement or for some form of protest irrespective of the consequences on themselves or others or even the environment. This has caused serious damages on lives in some agitators like the illustrious son of Niger Delta, Ken Saro Wiwa and on the land and seas of the Niger delta that the economic activities changed. What actually is the business of sculpture in oil pipe vandalization or what the relationship between oil pipe line vandals is and sculpture. Postulations and projections are that after some years when the crude oil activity would have ended how would humanity remember this devastating activity as they remembered Holodomor in hunger genocide in Russia. One cannot over emphasize the importance of visual documentation of contemporary history for posterity as we saw in the Nok sculptures. . Anchoring on the theories of bio mimicry popularized by Janine Benyus and questioned by Marshall and Lozena, this study attempts to sculpturally document the activities of these pipe line vandals in a naturalistic rendition of a large sized fibre glass and artistically removing some areas after the fashion of Bruno Catalano. Qualitative mode of research coupled with major studio practices of modelling casting and finishing were employed in this study. The issue of oil pipe line vandalization in the Niger Delta region is devastating enough that it is presently one of the front burner problem within the region that in the years to come when oil would have gone extinct visual records of sculpture would be the only reminder of this era.
Keywords: Niger-Delta, Sculpture, bio mimicry, pipe line, vandalization