Kanbi Projects is pleased to present Constructs & Planes, a two-man pop-up exhibition featuring works by David Akinola and Gbolahan Ayoola. The exhibition explores geometric abstraction within an African aesthetic context. While the human figure has traditionally been the primary subject of African aesthetic, many forms of African art are characterised by their visual abstraction, or departure from naturalistic representation through innovative form and composition with varying degree of abstraction, from idealised naturalism to more simplified, geometrically conceived forms.
This stylization and abstraction has served as a catalyst for the innovations of Western modernist artists from the 20th century who sought alternatives to realistic representation inspired by African sculpture through its abstract concept approach to the human form. From the earliest attempt, geometric forms have been central to the notion of abstraction. Abstract artists distilled art to its basic form using the key components of shape, line and colour to explore new ideas of modernity relevant for the industrial age.
Focusing on the notion of abstraction within an African stylised context, the exhibition presents twelve works on paper that either take as their cue the definition of geometric abstraction or articulates a relationship to geometric abstraction with both artists using planes (two-dimensional works) to present new constructs (ideas and theories) situated within a contemporary African experience. While these constructs are, abstractions expressed in lines, shapes and colour, they are rooted in the human condition and have vital relevance for today's contemporary society.
In his 'Still Dreams' series, David Akinola utilises geometrical vocabulary consisting of basic forms and colours to speak to the human experience of emptiness - the wandering of the mind in dreams, thoughts and passions during those rare but necessary 'alone' moments in today's fast paced society. In this body of work, Akinola expresses such moments where people engage in colourful dreams about the future, turn to music or entertainment, meditation, rituals or any activities that can occupy such time.
It is a series of paintings involving a blank plane (empty time/space) filled with lines and shapes through layering that overlap and evolve into dynamic and floating compositions (thoughts). The title of the series borrows from Thelonious Monk's track/album: Monk's Dream, with two of the works in the series using a sheet of the track as their point of departure. The creative process is fuelled by the improvisatory nature of jazz musicians, from Thelonious Monk to Dizzy Gillespie amongst others, as well as the soothing blues of Ali Farka Toure.
Ayoola in his Òsùmàrè (rainbow) series, represents the emotions of peace, happiness and sense of security through patterns inspired by the traditional Gourounsi architecture of elaborately decorated walls in Tiébélé by the Kassena people in south-western Burkina Faso near the Ghanian border. Òsùmàrè - the rainbow serpent - is the Yoruba Òrìsà of cycles and transformation.
Although considered androgynous (she spends part of the year as man and part as a woman), in the female form, she is the awe that you experience when you
see a rainbow across the sky, representing joy and happiness but Òsùmàrè Is more about the feeling of having already obtained that joy unlike the other Òrìsà Òsun, which is more about the curious search for it. In the paintings, she (Òsùmàrè) is secured within swaths of colour and clear lines, like patterns of the Tiébélé house as a form of defence against negative energies.
The main purpose of highly architecturally sophisticated buildings in Tiébélé is to protect residents from enemies and hot climate. Wall paintings in Tiébélé village have
a very rich symbolism with each painted house having many different geometrical and illustrative drawings with varying symbolic meaning behind them. For instance, the depiction of crocodiles and snakes have an apotropaic function, as they are regarded by the Kassena to be sacred animals that were capable of keeping bad luck and diseases at bay. Stars and moons, on the other hand, are meant to symbolize goodness and hope.
Constructs & Planes examines the evocative interrelation between colour and form to create an aesthetic experience that engages the sight, sound, and emotions of the viewer. As Wassily Kandisky (one of the pioneers of abstract modern art) posited, total abstraction offered the possibility for profound, transcendental expression through a pictorial language that only loosely related to the outside world, but expressed volumes about the inner experience.
For Kadinsky, painting was, above all, deeply spiritual and he sought to convey profound spirituality and the depth of human emotion through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colours that transcended cultural and physical boundaries. Similarly, free from the burden of representation in the exhibited works, Ayoola and Akinola delve within their African experiences to express universal ideas on the human condition that transcends culture and geography. The outcome, are paintings that are object- free but emotionally rich that allude to a unifying human experience irrespective of race, belief or boundaries.
The exhibition is also an opportunity to examine the diversity of artistic practice within abstraction between the two artists given their generational differences, to reveal the potential tensions, both formal and conceptual, in particular, the influences and developments between generation of artists when their works are shown as a dialogue in close proximity.
Related artists
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DAVID AKINOLA
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GBOLAHAN AYOOLA