ARTIST PROFILE:

DIL
HUMPHREY-UMEZULIKE
BY TERRY BRUNT
DIL HUMPHREY-
UMEZULIKE
• Also Known as:
• Dilomprizulike
• “The Junkman From Africa”
• Born 1960 in Enugu, Nigeria
• Contemporary artist in sculpting,
performing and painting
• Education
• Studied art at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka in Nigeria
• Received an MFA (Master of Fine
Arts) from the University of
Dundee, Scotland
HIS STATEMENT

“Junk keeps following me like a pilot fish because I won’t

let it rest. And toying with junk has taught me that reality
lies within the property of the madman: and not in this
‘plastic world’ of the world. The battle goes on as the
world rapidly races ahead – the casualties litter the fields
and gutters.

- waste, garbage –

But I look at these outcasts, bruised & battered from the

battle with abandon; and their innocent bleeding wounds
evoke a compassion in me as I pick them, bathe them with
the emotional touch of a mother. Soon they burst into life,
reverberating with colours and contours and according to
likes of genders. I say, “Stay together, in cages here and
there. Let me look after you until the ‘New Yam
Festival’…”
HIS ART

Dilomprizulike uses old clothing,

scrap and other rubbish to
create his sculptures.
His art often reflects politics,
society or culture.
JUNKYARD MUSEUM
OF AWKWARD THINGS

A museum constructed entirely out of discarded materials

The museum has been constructed twice: Once in Lagos,

Nigeria and again for the Mostyn Gallery, Wales (2010)

Dilomprizulike himself described the museum as:

“Presents the unpresentable
Values the worthless
Appreciates the depreciated
Takes the outcasts inside
Embraces the untouchable”

The Junkyard reflects people’s sense of rejection in a consumer

society
WEAR AND TEAR
INSTILLATION
Wear and Tear is an instillation of numerous structures
Dilomprizulike created in 2000

“Wear and Tear as a concept attempts to expose the often

overlooked and underrated elements of the African-Urban
communal life which largely influence it. The alienated situation
of the African in his own society becomes tragic. There is a
struggle inside him, a consciousness of living with the
complications of an imposed civilisation. He can no longer go
back to pick up the fragments of his father's shattered culture;
neither is he equipped enough to keep pace with the white-
man's world.”
Dilomprizulike’s explanation of Wear and Tear from the
Africa's: The Artist and the City exhibition
AFRICA REMIX

Some of Dilomprizulike’s work

was featured in the Africa Remix
tour to the Hayward Gallery in
London (2005)
OTHER ART
OTHER ART