In Bound by Roots, Divided by Paths, Nigerian-born, Dudley-based artist Abraham Babajide Cole reimagines migration not as displacement, but as transformation—an ongoing process of renewal, contribution, and becoming. Presented at Dudley Library as part of Black History Month 2025, the exhibition brings together painting, drawing, sculpture, and community collaboration to explore how movement, memory, and shared histories shape both personal and collective identity.
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
Walt Whitman
At its heart, Bound by Roots, Divided by Paths is a meditation on belonging: how migration anchors us to memory even as it carries us across new landscapes. Cole grounds the work in a Yoruba cosmological understanding of the self—fluid, layered, and in constant dialogue with ancestral pasts. Drawing inspiration from the intertwined histories of Modakeke and Ile-Ife, two Yoruba communities connected by kinship yet shaped by centuries of migration, conflict, and reconciliation, Cole uses their story as a lens through which to examine wider diasporic experiences of resilience and renewal.
One of the exhibition’s most compelling works is a community clay sculpture that doubles as an interactive Noughts and Crosses board. This playful yet profound reinterpretation transforms a familiar game into a metaphor for coexistence, strategy, and collective authorship. Created collaboratively with members of the Dudley community, the sculpture embodies Cole’s belief in art as participation. Clay—an elemental material tied to earth, ancestry, and creation—becomes a medium through which many hands shape a shared narrative, square by square.
This communal energy is echoed in a series of charcoal and ink works accented with oil stick, where figures appear and dissolve within layered textures. These spectral forms suggest both presence and absence, mapping the emotional geography of migration. Charcoal, born of fire, carries connotations of destruction and renewal—histories burned, yet never erased. In contrast, the exhibition’s large dual-panel paintings anchor the space in visual balance, reflecting themes of division and unity, fracture and bridge.
Cole’s practice is deeply rooted in diasporic storytelling, transforming inherited memory into active dialogue. His earlier series, Ijinlẹ Ara (The Depth of Self), examined identity through the Yoruba concept of ara—the body as both vessel and archive. In Bound by Roots, Divided by Paths, this inquiry expands beyond the individual to embrace the collective. Identity here is not singular or fixed, but a constellation of shared experiences shaped by movement, loss, conflict, and reconciliation.
“Migration is not just movement across borders,” Cole writes in his exhibition text. “It is a reshaping of the self.” This reshaping is evident not only in the imagery, but in the exhibition’s structure, where community participation becomes a form of authorship. At a time when migration is often framed through narratives of crisis or absence, Cole offers a counter-narrative—one that sees migration as an act of contribution, an infusion of value, creativity, and vitality into new environments.
There is a quiet generosity in how Bound by Roots, Divided by Paths inhabits space. Rather than speaking about community, it speaks with it. Every clay imprint and charcoal gesture becomes part of a shared conversation. Dudley Library itself is transformed into a site of reflection and ritual, positioning the Black Country within global stories of movement and belonging, and affirming diasporic narratives as central to contemporary Britain.
Cole’s visual language—resonant with the gestural immediacy of Cy Twombly and the spiritual materiality of El Anatsui—remains distinctly his own. Through material experimentation and philosophical depth, he invites viewers to consider identity as an ongoing negotiation: a weaving of what we inherit and what we encounter. His works quietly pose a persistent question—what remains constant, even as our paths diverge?
In a world increasingly marked by division and isolation, Bound by Roots, Divided by Paths stands as a powerful reminder of art’s ability to reframe migration as a catalyst for unity, tolerance, and shared humanity. Through earth, pigment, and play, Cole offers a vision of belonging that transcends borders, rooted instead in collective imagination and the enduring human impulse to create together.
Ultimately, the exhibition feels less like a static display and more like a living archive—one that remembers, questions, and reimagines. It affirms that when migration is understood not as rupture but as reciprocity, art becomes a powerful tool for healing, connection, and the creation of new homes in unfamiliar soil.
About the Artist
Abraham Babajide Cole is a Nigerian-born, Birmingham-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores migration, spirituality, and identity through painting, drawing, sculpture, and community engagement. Grounded in Yoruba philosophy and diasporic storytelling, his practice examines how heritage and memory shape belonging. Cole has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions across London, Athens, Lagos, and Birmingham.
