When it comes to ambition, vision and tenacity, SOLDIER is among the most essential creatives plying their craft in London. Born in Lagos before running away from home at 16, the artist and designer found himself situated in London, with the drive, guile and uncompromising creative philosophy to help reshape and redefine what polymathy looks like for an emerging talent.

Despite amassing a mere 23 years around the sun, his list of projects and achievements is bountiful. From the forming of skate collective Motherlan with fellow multi-disciplinarians and friends Slawn and Onyedi, to designing Ezra Collectives outfits for their Mercury Prize winning triumph, his DUKE + DEXTER x SOLDIER project, his striking Passport Series, and collaborating on three album covers with trailblazing Nigerian drill artist ODUMODUBLVCK, the breadth of SOLDIER’s endeavours is both striking and eclectic, illustrating his desire to have a profound impact across creative fields.

His latest work, The Iron SOLDIER is a fiercely captivating portrayal of the depths of human emotion and isolation. Made from recycled cardboard, the project is a moving sculpture that explores ostracisation and entrapment, with SOLDIER exploring a fresh medium in himself for the first time. Challenging in its approach, it showcases the potency of SOLDIER’s innovation.

We had the pleasure of catching up with the creative, discussing the impact of his cultural background on his art, analysing some of his recent projects, and musing as to what the future may hold.

Read the exclusive interview below…

What inspires you in day to day life?
Everything the world is, and everything the world could be. There’s so many complex things happening right now, and so many complexities. You can look at capitalism, you can look at the fact that as human-beings we have to buy our spot in this world – but then also you can look at beauty and art.

I feel like the very things that happen – from good to bad, the beautiful and ugly, family, home, peace, war – all of these give me something to say. What inspires me generally is just being alive.

How did you first find your feet creatively?
I first found my feet creatively when I was pushed against a wall. I’ve come from a place where you have to fight for everything you believe in.

My first time as a human being that I had to fight for something was when I finished secondary school in Lagos, the reality was to run away from everything I knew or stay there and become the things I dread the most. I chose to run away, just because I had to find a way to make some money instead of making more art, designing and skateboarding. So, having no safety net between my feet allowed me to get my first foot into the creative world.

Talk us through your journey up to this point?
I’ll keep it brief. My journey is ongoing, so to reflect on it right now would probably take 70 pages of words.

I was born in Lagos, Nigeria, went into skateboarding, met the right people who gave me the motivation and inspiration to make work. I’m a painter, a sculptor, a designer and my journey from then until now has been scary, though very glamorous at the same time.

As an avid skateboarder, to you what is the relationship between the discipline and art?
Avid not so much – after taking up arts full time, it’s been a minute since I picked up a skateboard. But, I do still enjoy the culture and do stuff catering for it. Skateboarding is freedom.

In many industries and sports, there’s always a particular way of doing things. With skateboarding there’s no particular way – you’re just doing it because you want to do it. There’s no reward, there’s no highest or lowest. You skate because you skate.

Obviously now, this new generation of skaters has people who judge others as they pick up a skateboard. Which I do not agree with. But, skateboarding is freedom and opens your ability to express yourself and form a group; that is what has inspired my whole life journey until now.

Do whatever you want. If you fall, you stand up and you keep going without rewards – you do it because you love it. That’s why I’m an artist, because of skateboarding. It’s the same lingo, really.

How has your cultural background impacted you as an artist?
Nigeria is a dumping ground for consumer culture. The West literally dumps products. It’s all about who has what, and why, and where – many people in Lagos are conflicted with the cost of living being so high and he government not doing much more for them.

Coming from a place where many people have nothing, yet are still happy – coming from a place where family is so complex – coming from a place where things are quite literal – it shows in my work. You look at my Passport Series, and that having a Nigerian passport doesn’t mean it gets you into many places. So, me coming from that world has given me a story to talk about, a story that combines race, culture and understanding all rooted in where I’m from.

The one thing about being a Nigerian, is learning to accept that you have the power to change your own destiny because no one is going to do that for you. Our government doesn’t do that for us, and that is reflected in my work. I reflect everything I’ve seen from Lagos in my work, and more generally the world.

We love your album covers for Odumodublvck! How do you successfully convey the music through your artwork?
It’s always a joint thing. He has a lot to say coming from the same place, and so his music is very message driven.

He calls me, and he gives me a brief. All I do is interpret what he’s trying to say in the brief. He talks a lot about corruption, a lot about things that happen in the Nigerian society – he talks about people turning their backs on you and then coming back when you’ve made it. He talks about politics, about society in itself, all through his music.

So, it’s easy for me to portray that because it’s the reality in which we live. All I need to do is find symbolisms for all these things that happen. I feel like our relationship – especially my relationship towards his music – is like that of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti and artist Lemi Ghariokwu, where Lemi was recreating album covers that portrayed everything Fela was saying like government injustice and the complexities of society as a whole.

The Ezra Collective fits were incredible! How did you envision and materialise the concept?
That was easy. I was given no time to do it, so I was forced to make up something on the spot.

Obviously, I feel as though I have so many things that I can draw inspiration from – for them, I wanted to do something in the camouflage sense because it was uniform. The idea was to find something close to home, so what better way to do that than head onto the streets of London a pick up different leaves and flower from plants that can only be found on these streets, and using that to make a camouflage motif?

The idea was doing something representative of my work, obviously my camouflage work, and keeping it close to home which is the UK, because that’s where they’re from. By taking actual plants and creating motifs from those plants, you’re making something that is produced solely for them – a piece that explores uniformity whilst showcasing my work.

Talk us through your other creative and media endeavours so far this year?
This year, I’ve been trying my hand in performances, I’ve been trying to get into sculptures, I’ve been dabbling in music and by that I mean working on things that tether to musicians.

I feel like I’m just trying to do as much as I can as an artist, not putting myself down to one medium but exploring a whole host of mediums and exploring everything as a whole. So, I’d say that my practise right now is maturing into me almost becoming a scientist exploring different things.

Talk us through the process of creating your Passport Series?
That came solely from the fact that I feel everyone has a right, the right to travel from one place to another. And, I feel like you’re treated like a company when you’re born – we’re given a name because the government can’t tax a human but they can tax as corporation. So, you’re given a corporation name which enables you to buy, sell, and through this you’re solely being controlled. You’re being told what to do after being involuntary born into the system as a company – depending on the way that your company is situated dictates the tools that you’re given.

I was born into an African society – people have looked down on Africa for the longest time and it’s so sad because the world takes so much from us without giving as much back. Our society right now is in such shambles that it is believed by going outside of Africa, outside of Nigeria you receive more – but, we are not given the privilege to easily travel for reasons unknown even to me, myself.

I do not believe in that, I believe that it should be easy for everyone to travel and it shouldn’t be left to the colour of your passport – if you even have a passport. My work was to reflect the sheer foolishness of the system that we live in today, and my ability to try and be free, everyone’s ability to be free. Bringing forward the issue of what a passport is to people who have no idea what a passport is – so many people living in progressive Western countries are not aware of the power they hold in being able to travel.

That work was a way for me to showcase what the average Nigerian, or the average person with a ‘bad passport’ has to go through to travel. My wish it to be able to do more with it.

What are your main career goals moving forward?
My main goal is to bridge the gap between beautiful, relevant and cultural things with artistic, institutional and complex things. My main goal is to tell stories, and to show the worlds the things I see from my perspective whilst providing for those I love the most.

As an artist I feel as though it’s my job to tell stories, and it’s to raise questions that people don’t necessarily think about. I’ll keep on doing that job until the very end.

What’s to come from you this year?
More life performances because I feel like art goes far beyond the canvas. I’m going to try my hand at new things, new techniques and I’m going to keep telling stories.

A lot more to come.