The faces of 108 Nigerian girls who remain missing, eight years after having been abducted by Islamist insurgents, were sculpted in clay under the title Statues Also Breathe by an artist, a group of potters, and university students and exhibited at Eko Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.

The aim of the exhibition is to raise awareness about the plight of the adopted Chibok girls who have been in captivity by Boko Haram militants since 2014, and to highlight the global struggle for girls’ education.

The militants kidnapped around 270 teenage girls in 2014 from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Ever since, about 160 of the girls have been released, some years after captivity,

The kidnapping initially prompted worldwide outrage; however, the story has recently faded from the headlines.

The sculptures which represent the missing girls were achieved in collaboration with the families of the kidnapped Chibok girls, a French visual artist, Prune Nourry, and the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife.

Viewers of the displayed heads felt nostalgic, as a delegation of mothers of the missing Chibok girls and other girls who were able to escape Boko Haram captivity were also attending to honor and remember their loved ones depicted in the sculptures.

After collecting photos of the missing girls from their families, they were given to 108 students, one for each, and they created the sculptures at a workshop in the southwestern city Ife.

Nourry was inspired by the ancient Ife terracotta heads, and she created portraits of the high school girls imaged in the style of iconic ancestral Ife artistry. She said the sculptures will be taken on a global tour.

Dr Michael Olusegun Fatuigbe, a lecturer in Obafemi Awolowo University who was part of the project from the beginning, said the most interesting part for him was the blend of culture.

“You can see the works are produced in the ancient style. We used Ife arts tradition to project another culture, which is that of the kanuri people and to let us understand that irrespective of our culture, arts, dressing or opinion, we are all faced with the same issues of security and social issues,” he said.

"Because they are in captivity, they are like statues, but they are still alive, still breathing and what are we doing about it? We must not forget these people in captivity.”