On Friday, 12th May 2017, a new book titled Gallery Walk-ins (Unsolicited) was launched at the British Council. The author of this new book is a young Sierra Leonean, Victor Koroma, who is based in the United States of America. It is a 143 pages book and is now available at major bookshops and other outlets like Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc.

The book launching was well attended and there were personalities like the Minister of Transport and Aviation Leonard Balogun Koroma, Minister of Political Affairs, Nanette Thomas, Deputy Minister of Health 1, Madina Rahman, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Gibril Sesay, Ambassador Foday Yansaneh, the General Manager of Sierra Leone Port Authority, A.B. Bangura, Lansana Fadika, Hassan Omolaja and many others.

The program was chaired by Dr. Fatu Taqi who said she felt quite happy to be asked to chair such an important event. She noted that, books, reading can half way help to solve most of the problems we face as a nation. Dr. Taqi lamented that the culture of reading considerably declined in the country saying it is very important to revive it again. “To see Sierra Leoneans now writing books is such  a remarkable achievement,” she underscored. The Chairperson appealed for Sierra Leoneans to embrace our books and portray what is our culture through writing.

On his part, the Minister of Transport and Aviation, Balogun Koroma, father of the author, expressed his love for Victor saying he is son with whom he is well pleased with. He revealed how Victor expressed strong passion for writing at a tender age. Logus, as he is popularly known catalogued the works of Victor which drew amazement from the audience considering his young age. “Victor the sky is the limit,” Logus joyfully said.

The book was launched by the First Lady, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma who first congratulated Victor for his creativeness and enjoined him to continue in that spirit. She maintained that Victor inherited the creative ability from the gene of his father who is not an artist but rather a writer.

Gallery Walk-ins is a moving anthology of short stories. Basically, it is an eclectic work that combines performing art with story-telling in an organic process. In it the book, the writer is the protagonist and the curators of some ten galleries are the antagonists. The book itself is not a fiction but a meta-writing which can be best described as a pot of inventive treat loaded with lumps of experimentation that has a pinch of pro-activity also tainted with insightful journalism. Looked at from another perspective, it is a catalogue of discreet blogs delineating the frustrations of a marginalized artist.

“It is full of judicious advice to budding artists in their struggle against the status quo, a proactive stance against established protocols, censorship, enclosed cabals,” Victor Koroma intimated this writer. He added that the book is an experiment furthering “This is a performance art.  My main goal is to walk-in,” he proudly informed.

Victor Koroma was born in Freetown but grew up in the United States of America where he currently lives and works as a photographer. He attained a BFA Degree in photography at the Art Institute of Washington. According to him his work blurs the boundary of what photography is by mixing it with other mediums , utilizing elements of paintings, illustrations and photography seeking beauty in every day recognizable objects. He succinctly stated, “The desire is to encourage people to think of them in new ways.”

He was recently awarded first place fine art winner in PDN’s objects of Desire contest and was nominated for the 2016 print magazine “New Visual Artists” winner.