I visited Tjaden Hall once again on Oct. 31 to sit down and talk art with senior BFA student Havily Nwakuche ’25. With her graduation looming in the near future, Nwakuche reflected on how both she and her art have grown since coming to Cornell. Growing up near a library that offered community art projects and always loving art in school, Nwakuche really started getting serious about her craft in her senior year of high school. Now, her main focus is the impact that art has on viewers and the power it has to exert external influence, rather than just existing as an idea or passive object.
Though she works with textiles and photography now, Nwakuche came into Cornell as a painter. “When I first got into college, I was solely a painter. I used to do these huge realistic paintings,” she said. “Painting was the only thing I had access to.” Additionally, she shared that, in her experience, painting has been “the only thing people think when they think of art.” However, that changed when she started taking classes at Cornell. The evolution of Nwakuche’s craft was a process — painting to printmaking to fabric printing to collage — and it’s still always in flux. Nwakuche has played with material, transformation and distortion through photography and digital mediums. She studied abroad in both Rome and New York, experiences that she identifies as very influential to her art. “Going on the ground and seeing different art movements that happened there was really inspiring,” Nwakuche shared, and it got her “thinking about ideas of performance and art as activism.” Those ideas have brought her to where she is today.
The most powerful aspect of art to Nwakuche is its impact. “I feel like … art is literally everywhere in ways that are never really appreciated. I think it’s actually necessary for life … It’s something that always spoke to me so deeply and has always been, for me, an agent of change. Creating change through activism through art and healing has been very important for me,” she shared. “I’m very invested in art as an experience … It can really move somebody to activism. I find it very beautiful. Something that’s been very empowering in my work has been being able to let other people experience it and how it speaks to their own experiences.”
The way Nwakuche views art through impact is intrinsically tied to the straightforward way she creates it. Her process is very direct. As soon as an idea pops into her head, she knows the specific way she wants to execute it. “I’m not really somebody who experiments. I’m somebody who just does it. If it doesn’t turn out right, I do it again.” Knowing from the conception of the idea what message she wants to convey, Nwakuche goes directly into the making process. When asked about her current goals and aims within her craft, Nwakuche identified women in the domestic sphere as one of her main areas of interest. She challenges the idea of women as disposable figures within the patriarchally-structured family, something deeply influenced by her Nigerian roots. “I’m working through ideas of domestic space and imagery but also thinking about unpacking domestic violence that happens in that space. I grew up with women suffering in silence and in a way that’s never really acknowledged,” she shared. Working towards activism and seeing the influence it has on people around her are the most important aspects of Nwakuche’s art.
Nwakuche has had plenty of experience doing art out in the world already, and one of the most valuable things she’s found is a community of other artists. “I love the idea of community organizing through art. I think a big part of what I enjoy in art in general is the community. I’ve met so many amazing artists, and I like the fact that it’s such a socially based field. I really enjoy being a part of this community.” As for future plans, whether that be as an artist’s assistant or on the technical side through gallery management, Nwakuche plans on remaining part of that community of artists.
If you’re interested in more of her work, she can be found @havilynwakuche on Instagram or [email protected].
Melissa Moon is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].