I Love (My) Land

Earth connects past, present and future generations. When does a person belong to a nation? What does identity mean? Being Cameroon-born and living in The Netherlands: my past and present are in permanent dialogue- Being is a process of becoming. I Love [My] Land is an expression of my own integration-process towards becoming a Dutchman, a process which will never be completed. This sculpture has literally two sides: Seen from an insider’s perspective (i.e.Dutch), this work seems to be an iconic representation of Holland because of the use of bicycle saddles but at th same time, its recycling-aesthetics refer to my African roots. From an immigrant’s or outsider’s point of view, this work is a reminder of  cultural differences and contrasts. For me, reality is a struggle between holding on to origins and a continuous development.      

Future Nostalgia

Riding a bike turns Man into an optimist. He has to provide his own traction. In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy. I draw lines throughout the city while riding my bicycle. These lines are neither straight nor angular. Likewise, people move in unique ways, both physically and mentally. The movement itself, that meandering line, is often not a smooth ride at all. We are increasingly inclined to trim down damages, holes and obstacles in our lives by contrast, it is my intention to leave these ‘faults’ or ‘failures’ in my work, both structurally and formally. The above mentioned works are odes to the founding fathers of modern art, with all their distorting, meandering, brilliant concoctions. No smooth rides for them either.  

It Ain't Over Till the Fat Lady sings

Vanitas painting( symbolic,still-life painting) of the seventeenth century symbolized through objects; human being struggle with the reality of finite life. Having taken my inspiration from this, i am now creating contemporary vanitas,highlighting through  daily objects the natural decay of changing world.
 

The objectivity and the enduring rapidity of scientific progress seem to present humanity from building any cultural meaning around itself.
This project is research how humanity has been culturally building death from the very beginning up to our rituals and through objects around us. I wonder, how we would cope with death in the society[world] we live in, where technology and medicine seems to be able to neutralize human mortality.

Truthful Perception

There are no absolute masters: you are always both pupil and master. The master teaches others and, in turn, is taught by them. All mirror are magic mirrors. We never see our reflections in them. The problem about thinking is that it often leads to paradox. Truthful Perception often takes familiar objects out of their contexts, breaking them down to combine with other objects and materials and transforming them in the process. This process of regeneration often results in original works of art that generate both tension and infinite meaning.

Our world seems to become increasingly unsafe by growing threats of physical and psychological violence. Man is like an abandoned ship that is spinning around on a swirling sea… We are being wrong-footed, our perception is being mangled and twisted. It hurts people when they are being forced to act against their better judgment. Knowledge and conscience are two different categories entirely. Conscience is no machine that programs reason into achieving predictable results. There is always a downside to the medal.

Humanize the Unhuman [Study for great chain of being]

In the distorting Mirror of Life, reality appears as it really is. The damaged life is displayed by means of everyday utilities. Everything around us can just as easily breakdown, change or disappear altogether. Consequently, everything that we perceive as being firm, grounded and balanced, is in fact just ephemeral, fragile and transitory. The “Rollers” are a good example of this. They embody and illustrate, as it were, the individual deterioration of the aging person walking behind the “balance-creating” roller. They represent perfectly idiosyncratic ways of ‘losing balance’, of ‘losing ground’

Metanoia Residencies

Progress and evolution are not bound to either time or place. They are first and foremost, human-bound. And so is deterioration and de-evolution. Can attributes, when brought together, signify something new. These are some of the questions which have their roots in my African childhood where I constantly had to re-use discarded materials in order to make playthings and toys. 

Nobody gives a Shit about Rietveld in Mali


It means “field of reed”

 

Exposure- Anatomy of Identity

If It Was My Imagination

"The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it"

Secundum

An object getting a "second" lease on life, acquiring powers of transformation in the process.
Progress and renewal are very much connected to people. The essence can be found in the idea that everything is connected to everything else, and that we are continuously in transition

 

Common Ground

Even though you have no idea where you’re going, know at least where you come from.

Esperance du Lendemain

"It's time to talk ...close the loop holes.Words are powerful tools of ideology"


 

Anatomy of Identity

"Who am I and who is the other?"


 

Beautiful Oracle

A human step exists by the grace of the “contradiction” between the one foot and the other. All contradictions are complements.  What attracts me also annoys me.  The questionable drive in our society towards physical perfection and eternal youth is one of the themes I am engaged in with my work during the creative process that forces me to negotiate a balance.  The damaged life is displayed by means of everyday utilities. Consequently, everything that we perceive as being firm, grounded and balanced, is in fact just ephemeral, fragile and transitory.