Susanne Wenger alias Adùnní Olórìṣà (1915 - 2009)
Sculptor, Illustrator & High Priestess of the Ò̩ṣun Grove
She was an Austrian-Nigerian artist who settled in Nigeria, rebuilt the Osun Grove & founded a successful Artist Cooperative.
Sculptor, Illustrator & High Priestess of the Ò̩ṣun Grove
She was an Austrian-Nigerian artist who settled in Nigeria, rebuilt the Osun Grove & founded a successful Artist Cooperative.
Sources: Wikipedia, NYTimes, GettyImages
Susanne was born in Graz, Austria, the daughter of an English and French high school teacher and a mother born to a high ranking Austro-Hungarian army officer.
She started her career and a Potter in the 1930s. After WW2, she was an worked for communist children's magazine Unsere Zeitung ("Our Newspaper"), of which the cover of the first edition she designed.
She also co-founded the Vienna Art Club. She started a work tour of Europe in 1947 & met Ulli Beier (L), her future husband, in 1949.
Beier had been offered a position as a phoneticist in Ibadan, Nigeria. The position was only offered to a married lecturer, the couple who had given little consideration to marriage prior to the offer decided to get married in London and emigrated to Nigeria.
University College, Ibadan, was at the time, in the the outskirt of the city and the predominantly British faculty rarely socialized with their African students.
The couple's intention was to live amongst the local so they loved Ede the following year.
Within a year of her arrival, she went through a bout of illness caused by tuberculosis, after which she became more spiritual and turned to the Yoruba religion. She became attracted to the religion after meeting Ajagemo, a priest of Obatala at Ede.
Ajagemo introduced Wenger to the Yoruba world view, language and religion, and both individuals soon developed a special bond. During this period, Wenger experimented with colorful designs influenced by Adire making techniques.
Wenger and Beier ultimately divorced, with Wenger later marrying local drummer Lasisi Ayansola Onilu, by which time she was establishing herself as an active participant in the revival of the Orisha religion.
Wenger left Ede and moved to Ilobu, before she finally settled at Osogbo in 1961 where she became the leading advocate for the Osun Grove.
She engaged in community service and teamed up with the Public Works Department and a artist collective, to eradicate the termites and also redevelop the carvings and buildings within the shrine using both wood and cement.
She was founder of the archaic-modern art school "New Sacred Art", a branch of the wider Oshogbo school, and became the guardian of the Sacred Grove of the Osun goddess on the banks of the Osun River in Oshogbo.
Wenger's works not only express the activities and functions of the specific orishas but also depict the social life of adherents and non adherents of the traditional religion.
Her residence showcases her art, as many of the house's furniture depicts an aspect of the Yoruba art form. Susanne passed away 12th January, 2009 at her home in Òṣogbo, she was 93.
