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Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Chimemelie Okafor

When the Cock Crows

Painting
2026
Oil paint on canvas
36 x 36 inches
Original ways of knowing

“"When the Cock Crows" portrays how Igbo people understood time through natural occurrences such as the crowing of a rooster. Before mechanical clocks, the rooster indicated when to wake up and begin daily activities. The chicken is painted larger than the figure to honour its importance as the first alarm clock and to emphasize the value placed on these systems of knowledge.”

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When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows
When the Cock Crows

Work by

Chimemelie Okafor

Drawing and Painting

“My body of work explores the Igbo concept of time through a four-painting installation that moves through stages of decolonization, progressing from pre-colonial understandings of time, to colonial...” [More]