Cheikhou Bâ
All works from Tomorrow Series, 2015.
About:
Born in Senegal, Lives and Works in Dakar and Geneva.
Cheikhou Bâ graduated from the Fine Arts School of Dakar and from the Geneva University of Art and Design. His works was shown in solo and group shows in Dubai and in several exhibitions around Europe (France, Spain etc.)
Through a stimulating and vivid body of works that includes ceramics, paintings, and mixed media installations, Bâ attempts to decode the question of ‘How to be a better person?’. This daily quest or aspiration challenges our perceived freedom, will and basic independence. At the end of ‘life’s journey’ will we conclude that we have spent too much time ‘calculating’ rather than living?
In an attempt to express these thoughts and answer these questions, Bâ uses his customary powerful sculptural work and a palette of vibrant, unapologetic colours, dynamic line work and a keen sense of space to reveal visually the subject’s value and vision. Layers of text, geometrical studies and ‘fragments of being’ add an element of ambiguity and invite the viewer to yield to a moment of introspection.
Heads and bodies are isolated from each other. Posing a question: ‘Are they seeking to be apart, or working towards a union?’. Our minds are what make us who we are, and the depictions of heads demonstrates this, but as skulls there is finality in our equality. The fact that one isn’t more intelligent, richer or more beautiful than the other forces us to ask what is important in this voyage called life. (text and courtesy: 50 Golborne Gallery London)