Cheikhou Ba 41 rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France +33 1 46 33 13 13 contact@imanefares.com www.imanefares.com
Cheikhou BA Sculpture Born in 1971, Dakar, Senegal. Lives and works in Dakar. In his research, Cheikhou Ba explores different aspects of the human condition. The notion of respect for individual and collective rights and liberties takes the form of a ritual in the artwork titled Marcher sur des œufs (Walking on Eggshells, 2012). In this installation, hundreds of white ceramic eggs are scattered across the floor. The visitor is invited to cross the space while walking barefoot on the eggs. The reference to the expression walking on eggshells is explicit. In this work he is referring to his stay in Switzerland where he studied ceramic and polymer at the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD). The artist was questioning how to respect the culture of the Other and how to ensure that his is respected. How can an encounter be a richness and not a destructive confrontation? Probably indeed it is by advancing step by step, with delicacy, with all the senses on alert. Listening, learning and understanding. This installation, an invitation to partake in an initiation ritual, also ponders how to learn unfamiliar codes in order to embrace the unknown and make ones difference accepted. The artist seems to have made overcoming the Other s gaze and never judge a leitmotiv. The equality of people and genres is a key question he has developed in diverse forms. The installation Look behind (2009) suggests the danger of a gaze which is biased by hermetic cultural references. Arranged in rows in a large box like an army of toy soldiers, millions of asexual cardboard silhouettes are black on one side and white on the other. The identity of this anonymous horde fluctuates according to the visitor s position. This double tone also evokes the ambiguity of each individual via the multiple evolutions of their personality forged by encounters, the weight of the other s gaze and the trials of life. The ambivalence of human nature is a recurring theme in Cheikhou Ba s work. In 2008 he bought a batch of twenty small stuffed animals with the aim to utilise them one day. Substituting these for human beings is in direct continuation with the canvases of half-human half-animal forms which he has been painting since he left the École Nationale des Arts (National Arts School) in Dakar in 2000. These various creatures are the base of his formal and conceptual research considering human nature through its multiple incessant and ever ambiguous transformations. In his artworks that feature asexual characters, man is perhaps a woman, an animal or a spirit. But this is still an anthropomorphic being with a grimacing face of defiance, sorrow or irony. Whether it is through drawing, painting or sculpture, Cheikhou Ba explores the principle of metamorphosis with the will to recreate the primordial equation inherent in the esoteric philosophies of the people from Sub-Saharan Africa: the sum of everything is equal to this undefinable unknown on which everything relies. In his work, the spirit is conceived through matter and takes the form of an artwork. All his artworks with their very researched aesthetic represent the process of mutation of an individual, whether that is the physical appearance or the personality. The little stuffed animals bought in Europe gave birth five years later to the series Lii rek (2013-2014). 2
An enigmatic title that means this is it in English, as if to say that these toys for children have become artworks for adults or the heros of the improbable story that the visitor is invited to write. The value and function of the stuffed animals are determined by the nature of the person that looks at them. Toys or sculptures, the grimacing faces of the stuffed animals inevitably generate a smile or a malicious gaze, since Lii rek refers to the nostalgia of childhood and the comfort of a soft touch. A contact which is at once playful and sensual which plunges the visitor into the world of innocence while allowing them to flirt with sexuality via the sensuality generated through the temptation of touch. Beyond the question of the process of metamorphosis of any individual throughout their lives, this series is an invitation to break several taboos: take on the child that rests within everyone as much as the carnal desires of the adult that is stuck in a role packed with duties and responsibilities imposed by a conservative society which is always prompt to judge and condemn. Lii rek also points to the paradoxes of globalisation via the story of a particular journey. That of twenty small stuffed animals made by workers in China, destined for children in the West, subverted by the artist in Senegal and probably acquired by a European collector. Via three continents and four sociocultural statuses Cheikhou Ba analyses, via the ironic destiny of a mass-produced object, morphed into a sculpture, the value we bestow on desire and the criteria that define a work of art. N Goné Fall 3
4 Biography
Cheikhou BA Sculpture Born in 1971, Dakar, Senegal. Lives and works in Dakar. Personal exhibitions - selection - 2014 Lii Rek, Villa Racine, Dakar, Sénégal 2013 Mouth of freedom, Callalou Gallery, Cleveland, USA Les contradictions de la vie, The Mojo Gallery, Dubaï, Émirats Arabe Unis 2012 Le flou de la vie, Villa Racine, Dakar, Sénégal 2011 Where are we going,kalao gallery, Bilbao, Espagne 2010 Identity, Villa Racine, Dakar, Sénégal 2009 Identity, Galerie Atiss, Dakar, Sénégal 2008 Kulttuurikauppila. Ii, Finlande Galerie du Château, Renens, Suisse 2005 Espace d Art Contemporain Rur Art, Poitou-Charentes, France 2004 Wernadé, Studio Ebéris, Dak Art Off, Dakar, Sénégal 2003 Galerie Arté, Dakar, Sénégal Collective exhibitions - selection - 2014 Grain de folie, Les comptoirs du Fleuve, St-Louis, Sénégal 2012 Flying, Bethanian, Berlin, Allemagne More Human, Biscuiterie Médina, Biennale de Dakar, Off, Sénégal 2nd ROUND, Kalao Gallery, Bilbao, Espagne 2011 The return, Fiac, Musée d art contemporain d Alger, Algérie Sénégal contemporain, Kalao gallery, Bilbao, Espagne Le Douze Gallery, Nantes, France 2010 As it is, Mojo gallery, Dubaï, Émirats Arabe Unis Head, Genève, Suisse Galerie le Douze, Nantes, France 2009 Animal, Anima, Fondation Jean Paul Blachère, Apt, France All Bamsley Diversity Festival, South Yorkshire, Angleterre Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, Hollande Europ Art O9, Genève, Suisse 2008 Paraplu Fabriek, Nijmegen, Hollande Espace Eiffage (ex-fougerolle), Dak Art Off, Dakar, Sénégal Etat des Lieux.01, Strasbourg, France 2006 China International Sculpture Symposium, Changchun, Chine Biennale d Art Contemporain Africain Dak Art, Dakar, Sénégal «Création Contemporaine au Sénégal», Institut Français, Dakar, Sénégal 5
2005 «Beneen Bët (Otra Mirada)», Santa Cruz, Ténériffe, Iles Canaries Water for everyone, Ottawa, Canada 2004 L Homme est un Mystère, Espace Lamennais, Saint Brieuc, France 2002 Multicultural 2002, Ténériffe, Iles Canaries Espace Fougerolle, Dak Art Off, Dakar, Sénégal Centre Culturel Français, Dakar, Sénégal 2001 Jeux de la fancophonie, Ottawa, Canada Residencies 2013 Cleveland Foundation, Zygote Press, Cleveland, USA 2012 Fondation Bruckner, Genève, Suisse 2008 IFAA (International Festival of Arts in Arnhem), Arnhem, Pays-Bas 2007 Kulttuurikaupila, Ii, Finlande 2006 China International Sculpture Symposium, Changchun, Chine 2005 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut, USA Lycées Agricoles, Poitou-Charentes, France 2004 Office départemental de développement culturel, St-Brieuc, France Awards - selection 2013 Sélection Creative Fusion residency program, Cleveland, USA 2012 Sélection biennale Dak Art, Dakar, Sénégal 2011 Sélection à la Fiac Alger - The Return, Alger, Algérie Prix de la Fondation Bruckner, Carouge, Suisse 2006 Sélection biennale Dak Art, Dakar Sénégal Prix Kultuurikaupila Ii, Finlande 2004 Prix Poitou-charente, Biennale Dak Art 2004, France Mention Spéciale de la Fondation Jean-Paul Blachère, Marseille, France. Sélection Josef and Anni Albers Foundation residency program, Connecticut. USA 2005 Représentant du Sénégal aux jeux de la Francophonie, Sculpture, Ottawa, Canada 6
41 rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France +33 1 46 33 13 13 contact@imanefares.com www.imanefares.com