What: Résiste
Who: Sejiro Avoseh | Salifou Lindou
Where: Afikaris Gallery, 38 rue Quincampoix, 75004 Paris, France
When: 13th February - 23rd March 2021
Via Afikaris Gallery:
From the latin word "resistere: to make a stand against", the exhibition "Résiste" showcases works by Nigerian artist Sejiro Avoseh and Cameroonian Salifou Lindou.
The dynamic stroke of Salifou Lindou reveals the inside of human beings, their strengths and weaknesses. The faces Sejiro Avoseh depicts, distorted due to violence and injustice, are the victims of their time, the martyrs of contemporary history. The vocabulary and personal style of the two artists testifies an art in resistance. The pictorial violence reflects the social conflicts and daily horrors, as well as internal conflicts faced by human beings. Whilst Salifou Lindou explores "the infinite resistance of humans regarding the traumas of existence", Sejiro Avoseh witnesses the history of his country, echoing its turmoil. He denounces abuses of power and stands up for a new era of freedom. If Salifou depicts a global fight involving the whole of humanity, Sejiro Avoseh narrows his analysis on specific events.
In the work of Sejiro Avoseh, the act of creation is violent in itself. He decomposes and disfigures his characters. He tears and burns his canvases. The artworks become hybrid beings, often made of differing pieces of fabric sewn together, sometimes of newspapers and magazines cut-outs. Cuttings rise from his canvases, like an emaciated and suffering body and as an illustration of the violence the flesh suffers. The canvas here Is an experimentation ground in which the violence of history operates. It embodies and lives the horrors Sejiro Avoseh tells through his work. It becomes the victim of a creative brutality, the flag of the distorted faces, witnesses of their time.
Thus, Résiste puts into perspective the very notion of resistance at two levels, through the gaze of both artists. They free themselves from the established rules and create their own world. They reinterpret the human figure, extending the tradition of the portrait.
Résiste gathers an ensemble of visceral works, mixing passion and fight. Between violence and chaos, it carries the voice of a generation standing for change. If the searing flesh of Salifou Lindou’s characters promises to reveal the secret of human beings, the dislocated figures of Sejiro Avoseh witness the violence bodies have to go through and the daily horrors causing their suffering.
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