Artist Talk w/ Aurel Tchoumo Tsafack
Thursday February 20th at 6PM
In recognition of Black History Month, the TREX Program and the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie are pleased to host Aurel Tchoumo Tsafack as he shares his art practice and artworks currently in the Travelling Exhibition (TREX), Self Reflection.
Artist Statement:
My artwork is a contemplation, a research on my African cultural identity, which is gradually being wiped out by technology, pollution, and abusive exploitation of my birth land. It is also a questioning on the colonial education imposed on my childhood and that of many other youths in Africa by the colonial masters.
To express these ideas, I chose mixed media because it allows me more freedom to navigate through these complex ideas of mine. More so, when I assemble different found objects it usually paves the paths to other ideas hence making found objects a great source of inspiration for my art. It is sometimes during the assembly process that my creativity expands just like
an orchestra playing and building on different notes which ends up producing soothing auditory jazz sounds.
an orchestra playing and building on different notes which ends up producing soothing auditory jazz sounds.
Vibrant colors have always been one of the major ways by which African culture is expressed. In my work colors inherently have a symbolic nature in many areas as they represent a variety of emotions, traditions, spirituality and victories. For example, Yellow and gold represent wealth, spirituality, wisdom, fertility and beauty. Black stands for royalty, maturity, spiritual energy and death. Blue on its part, is love, abundance, harmony and togetherness. Similarly, I use vibrant colors to give life to my paintings despite the fact that they depict the dark stories of colonialism, economic exploitation, and slavery, which are systematically hidden today.
In addition, I reinterpret old masters artworks using “black” figures and African symbols to captivate my audience and engage them in a discussion with the piece. Doing so is also a means for me to revive black art which was for centuries under-looked and not given its right value. For centuries, Africa has experienced turmoil which has led to the loss of a big portion of her culture leaving many African youth today like me in search for their lost identity.
Click here read more about the TREX Exhibition, Self Reflection.
