Chidinma's work invites the viewer into a dense web of questions concerning the physical and spiritual body in the context of place and space, in our societies, the gendered frameworks through which we drift, our obligations to each other and to ourselves. Her subjects are cradled by external (and internal) environments that possess their own sentience, connected together in a mysterious harmony, an unidentifiable language.

Sticking within a fairly narrow palette of natural tones and muted pastels, the absence of significant contrast between human figure and the exterior world holds up high the idea that the boundary between the two is porous and traversable. We can assume with ease that this dissolving structure also creates passage from subject to space, space to spirit, spirit to history

This conceptual richness has roots in Chidinma's cross-discipline creative mind, which steps away from painting and into poetry. Her poems could be seen as memories that are made visual on the canvas, kept suspended between fantasy and the containment of physical existence by the haze of a dream half-remembered.

Recognising the duality of the body and the ethereal self is important to Chidinma, who explores the role of both as emotional entities with parallel lived experiences. In response to trauma and healing, subjects explored in recent bodies of work, the mind and body collaborate to express stress, anxiety and relief. We can see sensations like these symbolised in paintings that are at once tense, but with the potential for emancipation from our ills.

Chidinma’s focus on women emerged early on in her painting career. Her depictions of femininity stem from her personal experiences, growing up around conservative, oppressive views fraught with gendered stereotypes and expectations. Exposing the hostility of these toxic notions, rooted in religion and misogyny, the paintings play an important role in highlighting and disarming those who seek to suppress the fullness of female freedom of expression.

The wider effect of spending time with Chidinma's work is one of comfort, that the suppressed among us are being watched over; that the lonely can find comfort in universal forces that, though not always easy to detect, are always there. Yes there is a darkness, a deep ache; there is also, however, a reminder of our shared experience, and how the message - however unidentifiable the language - of comfort and hope, is one that can be felt by us all.