Laolu Senbanjo is a Nigerian born, New York City based artist that is responsible for all the Yoruba body art in Beyonce’s new visual album, LEMONADE.
In an interview with ABC News, today, Laolu said that he has very excited to finally see his Yoruba body art finally come to life for the first time on Saturday evening when the project was aired on HBO.
His artistic work, which he tagged the sacred art of Ori, appeared on the chapter four of Lemonade titled Apathy which features sorry among other songs.
In the visual, dancers donned with the white Yoruba body paint sway while they were seated on a bus with Beyonce who recites the monologue inspired by a Somali British poet Warsan Shire.
Here is a summary of what Loala had to say while being …show more content…
People thought I was crazy, but when it's Beyoncé, you don't question it.” Loala said.
He continued that
So I was asked to do my Sacred Art of the Ori for the dancers, and what that essentially means is Sacred Art of the Essence. The dancers were my canvas, my muses. I would watch and listen to their dance, body movements, energy smiles and strength and try to bring out what they were capturing with the movements in my paint.
The paint is a white ink with very spiritual meaning in Yoruba culture. It's something we often use as a dedication to worship of orishas, the gods in Yoruba religion. The vision Beyoncé had was very intense and deep -- connecting with the Yoruba culture and all. You know, the Yoruba religion and culture has traveled all over the world after the slave trade, and it resonates so much with African people from the diaspora all over the world.
Did you get to meet Beyoncé?
Yes! I wasn’t painting that day, and she was just around the corner and called out to me. I was stunned she even recognized me at first, but it was absolutely amazing talking to
In an interview with ABC News, today, Laolu said that he has very excited to finally see his Yoruba body art finally come to life for the first time on Saturday evening when the project was aired on HBO.
His artistic work, which he tagged the sacred art of Ori, appeared on the chapter four of Lemonade titled Apathy which features sorry among other songs.
In the visual, dancers donned with the white Yoruba body paint sway while they were seated on a bus with Beyonce who recites the monologue inspired by a Somali British poet Warsan Shire.
Here is a summary of what Loala had to say while being …show more content…
People thought I was crazy, but when it's Beyoncé, you don't question it.” Loala said.
He continued that
So I was asked to do my Sacred Art of the Ori for the dancers, and what that essentially means is Sacred Art of the Essence. The dancers were my canvas, my muses. I would watch and listen to their dance, body movements, energy smiles and strength and try to bring out what they were capturing with the movements in my paint.
The paint is a white ink with very spiritual meaning in Yoruba culture. It's something we often use as a dedication to worship of orishas, the gods in Yoruba religion. The vision Beyoncé had was very intense and deep -- connecting with the Yoruba culture and all. You know, the Yoruba religion and culture has traveled all over the world after the slave trade, and it resonates so much with African people from the diaspora all over the world.
Did you get to meet Beyoncé?
Yes! I wasn’t painting that day, and she was just around the corner and called out to me. I was stunned she even recognized me at first, but it was absolutely amazing talking to