Background & Inspiration
In this triptych, entitled “Destiny of Words,” Nya’ portrays the passionate and covenantal relationship that eternally binds The inspired word given to a visionary in order to pursue his assignment and fulfill his divine purpose in life.
Using color, texture and found objects, he visually depicts the Word given to him as a secretly coded language that is mysterious and incorruptible, supernatural and enduring, irrevocable and inestimable. And as the visionary continues to abide within the boundaries of The Word, intercoursing with every vowel, letter and miniscule, revelation breaks forth, and he graduates from being enlightened to illuminated as The Word transforms him to become a world transformer.
The royal hues of purples, crimson, blue, white and gold employed for the three pieces comprising the triptych alludes to this.
In essence, while the snow-white enveloping each piece is an allusion to the power of light, particularly its inherent capacity to dissect and unapologetically penetrate every angle of darkness and bring to full view every wicked agenda, evil intention, vile thought, malicious idea and purpose of every Man, the celestial palette of royal gold, majestic purple and snow white discloses how revelation granted by light clothes a visionary and dispenses immeasurable Grace that enables him to sail past the storms and sudden unpredictable waves of life with confidence and incommunicable joy foreign to reason and befuddling to human intellect.
In his preparatory drawings for his work, “Restoration of Zion,” Nya used the same colors he employed in the scrolls of this triptych to robe five distinguished figures traversing the earth with dominion and authority.
The faceless, genderless and nameless figures are an allusion to how God’s Word is the light that paves the way to every Man’s destiny, and any human who chooses to rest in the light of His Creator’s Word is guaranteed to ‘remain standing’ until he emerges as the trailblazer and pacesetter in the field of his calling and sphere of influence in the world (see fig 1).
Restoration of Zion X-Ray 66 | ©Nya’ 2004-2018. Seed Gallery, New York
Fig 1
The highlighted term ‘remain standing’ is important to note.
It is an allusion to the power of faith, a universal currency immune to inflation and according to the artist has the immeasurable capacity to “resurrect any Man from the tomb of melancholy and graveyard of mediocrity to heights of unsurpassable influence and dominion beyond cognition.”
The role of faith in creation and its intrinsic relationship with the human spirit is weaved throughout Nya’s oeuvre. However, he does not portray faith as a religious dogma, a charismatic movement, a denominational creed, a theological perspective, an ideology, or a set of precepts and principles, but rather “the only acceptable currency” for every living soul to tap into the eternal power granted by his Creator to discover his purpose and accomplish his assignment in life.
In another work that delves into the authority of light obtained by revelation of God’s Word, “Reservoir of Words,” Nya′ compares human beings' need for faith as a seed buried in the ground needs oxygen, warmth and water to initiate the process of germination.
In another work from his “Divine Inspiration” series entitled “Retired Composer,” the faith-filled and life-giving Word of God spoken consistently by a musician in the midst of his quandary and in his season of bleak despair enables him to escape the valley of death and resurrect his dying flesh by instilling it with divine life from his re-created spirit.
In the end, the gifted musician, who is depicted in the preparatory drawings as a resurrected cello is rewarded for his steadfast faith by receiving an extended warranty of life and a new morning filled with hope, passion, purpose, joy and endless possibilities (see fig 2).
In reference to the burnt patches of the scrolls, the broken letters and sackcloth veiling the text in this triptych, in a 2006 interview following the inauguration of the 3 pieces in an exhibition also entitled “Destiny of Words,” Nya’ explained how the broken letters and illegible words represent how a ‘natural person' has no control over the words that come out of their mouth.
Naturally, through willpower, sheer discipline, training and determination, they will be able to speak positive words for a season but when the inescapable pressures and uncertainties of life surround them, unlike the illuminated visionary alluded to by the snow-white, they contaminate their positive words with idle and corrupt words, thereby losing their confidence and aborting the journey their glorious destiny.
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