There is an old adage that anthropology is the science of making the strange familiar. Yet what counts as strange is always a matter of what is familiar to begin with: who is the observer, and who is the observed? What is normal, and what is alien?

In the first Chapter of ‘Wafuranki – The Findings of Seruya’, artist Jordan Rita Seruya Awori offers an invitation to experience Wafuranki society through the eyes of the quasi-fictive persona of Seruya, a prolific collector and ethnographer from elsewhere. Visitors enter the workshop and study of Seruya as she documents the peculiar rituals and aesthetics of the Wafuranki, exchanging field notes and observations with collaborators from abroad.

The artist visually interprets Seruya’s analysis as a series of evocative but seemingly unfinished sketches that read like entries in a field notebook, replete with inscrutable diagrams and incisive commentaries that shift between poetic and humorous as Seruya attempts to make sense of Wafuranki fashion, cosmology, superstitions, and culinary practices. Seruya’s impressions, rendered with a hint of color, are interrupted by museum-like displays of Wafuranki artifacts collected during the course of her fieldwork.

Like other pieces by Awori, the work is cryptic and curious, playful and profound—crafted with a signature style that grafts tactility and three-dimensional depth to every surface. Wafuranki – The Findings of Seruya (Chapter 1) speaks to the intrepid visitor, resonating as critique, parody, or the familiar disorientation that comes to those who travel. Conceptualized as a living exhibition, the artist welcomes guests into her workspace to witness her ongoing artistry dialogically and dynamically.

(Text by Dr. Steven Gonzalez - Goethe University Frankfurt)