Adérάyọ̀: When your story becomes your art

Art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, but unlike many things, simply defining art does not help us actually understand it. Various scholars of the subject often investigate the creator and from there deduce meaning, while others focus on the feelings a form of artwork provokes within them. The lesson - the story behind the art is equally valuable as the emotions people feel when they consume it.

Adérάyọ̀’s art is certainly no exception to this. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Adérάyọ̀ is a non-binary polymath artist who found community and family in Glasgow’s queer art scene. “I don’t feel gendered as an artist, a lot of my performances are story-based, and I take on so many versions of myself, so I don’t feel gendered in that space,” they say.

“It's the first queer community I've had; I think the unique thing about Glasgow is everyone here will really rally together to try and help people,” they say. Following a crowdfunding effort from the queer community in Glasgow, Adérάyọ̀ has now raised enough to apply for a two-year global talent visa.

Following this fundraising effort, Adérάyọ̀ sat down to discuss their art, their journey, and their community.

Adérάyọ̀’s inspiration for their art is not bound by just one thing, they say, “When I create a piece, like a dance piece and say What's the inspiration?” “I could give you a list of things, but I usually go off a feeling,” they add.

Before their performance in Stereo, Adérάyọ̀ recently produced a film, which featured as part of the Scottish Refugee Festival in June, called Dissonance. “It's about queerness and being raised conservatively in a country where it's obviously criminalised versus moving into somewhere to explore open queer culture,” they say.

“It is about how those two things are very starkly different and both intense in their own way; each of them creates its own emotional discourse,” they add. Meaning as disharmony among musical notes, the name Dissonance adds a form of understanding for those of us who have never had to consider what our queer experience may be like in different cultures. The film is half documentary, half narrative and contains five songs, alongside a monologue.

Despite having a film feature at the Refugee Festival, like any driven artist, this is not Adérάyọ̀’s only artistic dream. “One of my goals is actually to reach a level of acknowledgement internationally that I could take my artwork to Nigeria and despite it having queer tones, they can't really stop me,” Adérάyọ̀ says.

“It would be a hard thing to create a queer film within Nigeria and have it seen, but if I do it outside the country and through an international submission instead, that is my best way of getting through the censorship laws,” they say.

Nigeria has some of the harshest laws surrounding LGBTQ+ rights in the world. Being LGBTQ+ is punishable by death in the North of the country and up to 14 years imprisonment in the South. Adérάyọ̀’s determination to have their queer identity seen in Nigeria is deeply inspirational, especially given the way the country criminalises their identity. It represents their artistic spirit of telling stories and taking on differing versions of themselves to express their queerness.

Despite Nigeria’s severe censorship of Adérάyọ̀’s identity, they understandably still miss parts of the culture they experienced growing up. “I miss the community and the food, and those two things are tied together,” they say. “I grew up Muslim, as well as Christian, so during Eid we would be driving to my grandpa's place very early in the morning, eating there, then driving to my uncle's place, eating there, then driving to an auntie's place, eating there, kind of like a little hopscotch,” they add.

“It would be full of people and everyone's cooking, so you see cousins that you've not seen in years and you see some random older person that's like, oh, I used to know you when you were this little,” Adérάyọ̀ says. The way the community differs from Scotland to Nigeria is something Adérάyọ̀ has found challenging.

“Sometimes it does feel a bit isolating, but I think that's not necessarily the community here, but just the way community works in the UK in general,” they say. “I'm from a country where it's very family-oriented, and if I were still at home, I would live at home with my family, so having flatmates and my flatmate has their family and their life, it does get a bit isolating at times,” Adérάyọ̀ adds.

When Adérάyọ̀ first moved to Scotland in 2019 to study nursing in Dundee, they found it increasingly challenging. “It was cold and was rough going the first few years,” they say. “Dundee, especially as a place, was not the most accepting. I would get racist abuse sometimes, so that was quite tough,” they add.

Despite their first experience in Scotland being increasingly challenging due to the changes in climate, culture, and community. Adérάyọ̀’s experience changed for the better when they heard about Bonjour, a queer space which welcomed everyone under the queer umbrella, including trans people and people of colour.

Bonjour, unfortunately, closed just after Adérάyọ̀ moved to Glasgow, but a new opportunity presented itself. They began to dance at Ponyboy, an event's pace that places trans and non-binary people at its forefront. Through dancing at Ponyboy Adérάyọ̀ found entirely similar and entirely different, who they describe as family. “They're my family and I don't want to lose them, that's been so good, it's been a lot of adjusting, but I'm quite cosy now,” they say.

Adérάyọ̀ has continued to grow in Glasgow’s queer art community. “I'm reaching that point with my art where I really want it to hold and bring people together and keep together people who have been marginalised in one way or the other,” they say. “That's really what I want to give back, is just that positive space and even if it's only a few hours, I want people to feel comfortable and safe, seen and heard,” Adérάyọ̀ adds.

Adérάyọ̀’s journey from Nigeria to Glasgow’s queer community has been bittersweet. On one hand, you have a person who has had to leave everything they have found familiar and move to a place filled with contrasting environments. On the other hand, you have someone free to express themselves, who has found their people and is using their platform to promote a message of positivity.

These contrasting experiences have produced different versions of Adérάyọ̀, and art has been their vehicle for exploration. ‘I take on so many versions of myself’ is such a profound statement and demonstrates one simple thing.

Adérάyọ̀’s story is their art, just as their art is their story.