Ernest Duku walks gently into the courtyard of London’s Somerset House. With
his greying hair spiking from his head and wearing the uniform of the fashionably
ragged scholar—black suit-jacket and a scarf—he could be confused for a visitor to
the 1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair. But Duku, is an acclaimed Ivorian artist,
herefor the first UK showing of his new works titled “Black Series.”
The 1-54 Contemporary African Art is the single largest exhibition of works from
African artists from the continent and its diaspora in the UK. For this fifth
edition, 130 artists and 42 galleries occupied all three wings at Somerset House in
central London drawing in a reported 17 000 visitors. Duku’s works have been
selected for many group exhibitions in his France and Ivory Coast, but less so in
the US or UK. A major exhibition of his works in Abidjan is being planned for
2018.
Born in 1958 in Ivory Coast, Duku attended Abidjan’s Fine Arts School in the late
1970s before moving to France to study architecture and Aesthetics and Sciences
of Art. He now divides his time and practice between both countries though his
work is known for transcending way beyond present geographical boundaries and
time spans.
Duku’s works are highly distinct negotiations between installation, sculpture and
painting which he has described as “sculpted-paintings.” It was while a young
student at the Fine Arts School in Abidjan that he rejected the two dimensions ofthe canvas and began to “focus on mural decor to extract a technique that
allowed me to be in the feel of the painting without being in that of the easel”.
This new technique was needed to accommodate his preoccupation with Akan
goldweights, their signs and symbols. His interest later expanded to include the
ideographic heritages of Ethiopia’s Amharic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Nigeria’s
Nsibidi, Mali’s Dogon and Tassili rock paintings spread across parts of Algeria,
Libya, Niger and Mali.
Old Masters whose works have been as influential includes Christian Lattier, the
Great Ivorian sculptor who adopted traditional weaving techniques to create
highly distinct works using stone, wood and wires, the most famous of which is
“The Chicken Thief or The Victory of the Samothrace” (1962); and Bruly Bouabre
(later Cheik Nadro) who invented approximately 450 pictograms which he used to
translate the oral traditions of Bete peoples of Ivory Coast into writing in the
1950s.
Duku’s “White Series” explored the history of the African continent largely
through the physicality of signs and symbols and their essential natures which, in
turn, led him to the spirituality contained within them. This move to the spiritual
marked a new progression in his work which he’s themed as the “Black Series”.
Our interview took place in the (S)itor section of the exhibition which had three
of Duku’s new works on display, as well as works by sculptor Ndary Lo and
photographer Oumar Ly, both well regarded and Senegalese.
But are these progressions in his work confined to his practice as an artist or if
indeed they also mark changes in his own personal life,and to what degree? “Thetwo are linked,” he tells OkayAfrica. “There’s an artistic practice that questions
religious chaos and at the same time, there is a personal journey that allows for
an understanding of this religious chaos”.
In the “Black Series,” a somber, contemplative mood is set by the pitch-black
paper which contrast sharply with the mainly white thread-work in shapes and
figures that are difficult to identify as any one thing.
Three of the new sculpted-paintings were displayed at Somerset House and next
to each other. Upon looking, the white forms on a jet-black surface at first give
the impression of real objects, as is the case with FA.LUX.OR Komian @
Amaatawalé shuffle (2016) which looks like a big untidy ball of white knitting
wool with a cable sticking out of it. Or very much like a masquerade in ornate
white costume with its feet exposed. Stringed to it and held aloft is a baby with
just one foot that is disproportionately big for the baby’s size.
The jumble of anthropomorphic features, tiny drawings and shadings in white
chalk, graphemes, dots of bolder colours in green, purple and red, knotted
strands protruding from the main mass make for a constellation that boggles the
mind, and will require the viewer to wait and ponder on the constituent elements
in order deciphered or simply appreciate in some detail.
No easy meanings come forth, from the work but also from one’s mind on account
of how dense the images are. I have found it more helpful to accept defeat, and
be open to any meanings—whether paltry or profound, immediate or delayed—
which the work offers. In Duku’s words, “I think that this path towards what Icall ‘the Exploration of Quantum Physics in the Entire Universe’ has led me to
better understand Akan tradition. There are links between the two.”
Another cycle has emerged in Duku’s works, as observed by his curator and dealer
Sitor Senghor and great-nephew to former Senegalese leader and intellectual,
Leopold Senghor, who says that as a young artist, Duku decided to focused on
painting and sculpture as he didn’t like drawing, most of which he would squeeze
and throw away. Over time he returned to drawing, on Chinese crisp paper this
time which he would squeeze and draw on, “so it was a sort of exercise which
lead now to this “black series” which is more simple and really goes to the
essence of his work”.
Duku’s adoption of a black palette to mark a new transition from a white one
could be seen as an easy or artificial imposition. Not for Duku who insists that
“the density of all things is seen in black. The reality of the density of all things
is that they all initially begin with the absence of color. The absence of all color
is closest to black. From this color, you can extract all other forms of color”.
He continues, describing the colour black as “atomic” but he may also be
referring to the composite images and inscriptions that make up a sculptured-
painting like FA.LUX.OR Komian @ Amaatawalé shuffle, and about which he says
“when I use symbols I try to have a sense of them and i look for the history of
these symbols to translate it in my work, but I think that with symbols comes the
memory of humanity. I use them to make sense of what’s happening presently
and in the past”.Even the titles of Duku’s works comes leaden with different levels of complexity.
Examples from the black series includeK.N.H.R. équilibre Kamaatawale @
Boson interdit (2016), Something else @ tombê de KARNAK (2016), and Awale
shuffle @ l’énigme des enlacements (2016).More than being simply distinctive,
these composed titles—typically a mixture of different African languages, as well
as French and English—are intended to “create sounds, the sound of the world. I
believe that the readers of the title should have the same emotion they do when
they hear a song”.
The polyphonic density of pygmy music from Central Africa could not, one
imagines, make for a harmonious pairing with the homophonic texture of classical
music from the West. Duku has a peculiar habit of simultaneously listening to
both forms while working because it will “also mix multiple levels of listening. It
assists in enhancing the complexity of my work. I create distance between the
music forms and whatever it is I am doing”.
Asked what he has observed about visitors’ reactions to the “Black Series” during
the 1.54 fair, Duku beams, “I’m very happy because people are often surprised
and those that have followed me see that I have put more depth in my work and
gone in a new direction. People recognize that i have gone further in my
research”.