This catalogue complements Sadikou Oukpedjo's Silentium exhibition at Galerie Cécile Fakhoury in Abidjan, from the 9th March 2019 to the 18th May 2019.
The catalogue is made of a text by the philosopher Seloua Luste Boulbina, "The Animal that I am", exhibition views, studio photos and reproductions of the works from the Silentium exhibition.
A bullock, a cockerel. A hen, or, rather, a guinea fowl. A nanny goat, a billy goat. Human bodies. Carcasses. Hybrid beings. A painting brought to life. Swathes of colour simultaneously blur and obscure the false clarity of the forms. A streaky or smudged blue. Bright white patches. A sombre, trans- parent and sometimes grainy grey. A colourful halo and yellow where feet are buried. Red spots. An opaque black paradoxically illuminates a strange scene. A red or bluish hue delineates new spaces. Shreds of pictorial matter congregate in an organised chaos. The painting therefore contrasts with the natural order of things. The dual presence of shapes and materials contributes to the intensity of Sadikou Oukpedjo’s large canvases : a space to show, tell and reflect. There are outpourings (of sympathy or pain). Above all there are mysteries, secret rituals, hidden things and the inexplicable. A whole mythology is at work behind the image, full of hybrid animals and enigmatic figures. In the face of death, do animals have a soul ?
Excerpt of "The Animal that I am", by Seloua Luste Boulbina
