An Appraisal of the Incidence of Happenstance as Leverages of Creative Instincts by Indigenous Yoruba Carvers of Western Nigeria

In making sculpture composition by carving, the myriad of thoughts and actions from concept formulation to formation encapsulate an assortment of the use of techniques and elements of design, these are either in accordance to the guiding rules of traditional conventions or that of the principles of design. Aside from the import of conventions, elements of design and principles, there appears to be a fourth angle that is either often played down or overlooked entirely in the course of wood carving which cannot be ignored. This paper therefore sought to idealise the attributes and efficacy of incidence of chance as fundamental concepts to adopt in the course of actualising compositions in sculpture making by the subtractive method. The paper elucidated with some examples how, saliently, the concept of happenstance, as unplanned concepts, has contributed to the final compositions of some renowned sculpture compositions and edifices. The paper concluded by postulating that happenstance should be adopted as additional model to principles of sculpture composition and recommended to sculptors or carvers to reinforce their creative drives by being cognisance of the benefits of acceptable haphazardness as a principle of creativity to observe in sculpture composition by the carving method.