Ori: Portrait of the Inner Head

Akin Fadeyi · 1998

Medium

Acrylic, cowrie shells, and ritual materials on canvas

Dimensions

120 × 90 cm

Fadeyi's sustained engagement with Yoruba spiritual tradition — the ori, or inner head, is the divine essence of an individual, the personal deity one chooses before birth. This painting is simultaneously a portrait, a shrine object, and a philosophical argument about selfhood.