.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Romuald Hazoumè works across a vast variety of mediums which include sculpture, painting, photography, film and soundscapes. Hazoumè is best known for his reappropriation of discarded containers including the ubiquitous plastic jerrycans, sourced from Germany, which are in constant daily use across the African continent. Hazoumè playfully transforms these ready-made objects into works of art, many of which contain ‘masks’. Hazoumè rejects the common European assumption that the mask, as art object, in some way defines African art. Despite the high value accorded to African masks by European artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and their central role in the transformation of neoclassical European styles into ‘modern art’, Hazoumè wryly maintains that his ‘masks’ have nothing at all to do with those traditions. Rather, he insists that his sculptural ‘masks’ are a contemporary African form of portraiture, with absolutely no links to the rarefied world reserved for real African masks. In typically ironic fashion, Hazoumè addresses the material exploitation of the entire African continent whilst simultaneously paying homage to its independent traditions, cultures and values.
The sculpture Sénégauloise is primarily composed of a weathered bleach bottle, mounted on its side and wrapped around in the common fashion of West African women wearing headscarves. These Dutch-wax printed cloths, although seen as quintessentially African textiles, are designed and manufactured overseas and are deliberately targeted to appeal to and penetrate the African market. The title itself is a droll wordplay in French, mixing the adjective for a female native of Senegal with a common brand of typically French cigarettes, that also denotes a woman from Gaul, the old name for the ‘original’ country that became France.
Hazoumè was born in 1962 to a Yoruba family in Porto-Novo, Benin, where he continues to live and work today. He considers himself not an artist but an aré, a roving ambassador of the rich traditions of Yoruba culture. Hazoumè has participated in countless major exhibitions of contemporary African art, including Out of Africa at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992 and Africa Remix at the Hayward Gallery in 2005. He was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize for his participation in documenta 12 (2007). Selected exhibitions include La Bouche du Roi at The Menil Collection, Houston, touring to the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, in 2006, after which it was acquired by the British Museum. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva; and the Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin. Romuald Hazoumè is represented by André Magnin and October Gallery, London.
The sculpture Sénégauloise is primarily composed of a weathered bleach bottle, mounted on its side and wrapped around in the common fashion of West African women wearing headscarves. These Dutch-wax printed cloths, although seen as quintessentially African textiles, are designed and manufactured overseas and are deliberately targeted to appeal to and penetrate the African market. The title itself is a droll wordplay in French, mixing the adjective for a female native of Senegal with a common brand of typically French cigarettes, that also denotes a woman from Gaul, the old name for the ‘original’ country that became France.
Hazoumè was born in 1962 to a Yoruba family in Porto-Novo, Benin, where he continues to live and work today. He considers himself not an artist but an aré, a roving ambassador of the rich traditions of Yoruba culture. Hazoumè has participated in countless major exhibitions of contemporary African art, including Out of Africa at the Saatchi Gallery in 1992 and Africa Remix at the Hayward Gallery in 2005. He was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize for his participation in documenta 12 (2007). Selected exhibitions include La Bouche du Roi at The Menil Collection, Houston, touring to the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, in 2006, after which it was acquired by the British Museum. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva; and the Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin. Romuald Hazoumè is represented by André Magnin and October Gallery, London.