Cheikhou Ba - Galerie Imane Fares

Cheikhou Ba
41 rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France • +33 1 46 33 13 13 • [email protected] • 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
Biography
4
Cheikhou BA
Sculpture
Born in 1971, Dakar, Senegal. Lives and works in Dakar.
Personal exhibitions - selection 2014 2013 Lii Rek, Villa Racine, Dakar, Sénégal
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
2011
2010
2009
The return, Fiac, Musée d’art contemporain d’Alger, Algérie
Sénégal contemporain, Kalao gallery, Bilbao, Espagne
Le Douze Gallery, Nantes, France
As it is, Mojo gallery, Dubaï, Émirats Arabe Unis
Head, Genève, Suisse
Galerie le Douze, Nantes, France
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
2006
Flying, Bethanian, Berlin, Allemagne
More Human, Biscuiterie Médina, Biennale de Dakar, Off, Sénégal
2nd ROUND, Kalao Gallery, Bilbao, Espagne
Paraplu Fabriek, Nijmegen, Hollande
Espace Eiffage (ex-Fougerolle), Dak’Art Off, Dakar, Sénégal
Etat des Lieux .01, Strasbourg, France
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
L’Homme est un Mystère, Espace Lamennais, Saint Brieuc, France
2004
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
2011
2006
6
Sélection à la Fiac Alger - “The Return”, Alger, Algérie
Prix de la Fondation Bruckner, Carouge, Suisse
Sélection biennale Dak’Art, Dakar Sénégal
Prix Kultuurikaupila Ii, Finlande
2004
2005
Sélection biennale Dak’Art , Dakar, Sénégal
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
Représentant du Sénégal aux jeux de la Francophonie, Sculpture, Ottawa, Canada
41 rue Mazarine, 75006 Paris, France • +33 1 46 33 13 13 • [email protected] • www.imanefares.com