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Ici on crève
2006-8
Pigment and wood
Collection of the Artist, Collection of Eric Decelle, and Courtesy of Moba Gallery, Brussels
Photo by Franko Khoury
There is no exact translation from French to English for crèver, a word that simultaneously means to burst, puncture, wear a person out and to die. With Ici on crève ("here we die, are worn out . . ."), artist Aimé Mpane presents faces of the sick, tired and suffering of his Congo homeland. Intermingling with these images of women and children are their concerns-money, hospitalization and death. The panels' scattered arrangement suggests both the bursting pressure of Congolese concerns and the energetic technique by which Mpane creates these works. He begins with a thin strip of plywood and paints it with found materials, such as fish glue. Next, he carves the wood with an adze, a tool used by generations of African artists. Although Mpane trained as a painter at the prestigious Visual Arts School of the Cambre in Belgium, he prefers the aroma and feel of working with wood. Here, he wed the act of carving with his interest in what is behind the surface of a canvas. He is motivated by the simultaneous appearance and disappearance of an image: of what is seen on the surface of an artwork and what is going on beyond it.
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Ici on crève (Detail)
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Ici on crève (Detail)
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Ici on crève (Detail)
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Ici on crève (Detail)
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Ici on crève (Detail)
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