In a joint effort between an artist, a group of potters, and university students, the faces of 108 Nigerian girls, still missing eight years after Boko Haram insurgents abducted them, have been sculpted into clay.
The artwork, “Statues Also Breathe,” was conceived by the French artist Prune Nourry and features 108 life-size clay heads that 108 students from all around Nigeria created. It is currently on exhibit at a Lagos art gallery.
In 2014, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped over 270 teenage girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok.
At first, the mass abduction sparked anger throughout the world, with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trending on social media and notable people calling for their release, including the then-First lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
The artwork, titled “Statues Also Breathe” and conceived by French artist Prune Nourry, consists of 108 life-size clay heads, made by 108 students from all over Nigeria, and is now on display at an art gallery in Lagos.
About 160 of the girls have since been freed, some after spending years in captivity, but the news has stopped being reported on.
Nourry collected pictures of the missing girls from their families and gave them to the students who made the sculptures at a one-day outdoor workshop on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, southwest Nigeria.
Participants included the parents of the missing girls and a small group of women who were among the kidnapped girls who were subsequently freed. According to Nourry, it was a cathartic experience for everyone involved.
