Antar Diop Clearwind at the Dung Kickers Art House
Antar Diop Clearwind is one of the artists that are being featured these days at the Dung Kickers Art House. You can find the gallery at Lakeview #18 : head north from Treasure Island Castle TP and follow the coast till you reach coordinates : There you will get to meet with the artwork of three members of the Dung Kickers society, and among them, Antar.
Though it was impossible for me to get an interview with the artist, here is a little introduction to one of his paintings I particularly enjoyed. Not knowing the title of the work, i decided to call it “Blue Child” for practical reasons, until I stand corrected of course…
Blue Child
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/1/4/0/1/bluechild_thumb.jpg
The painting first reminded me of the African tribes that put blue makeup on their faces, and there is probably a realistic inspiration at the origin of the artwork, but there is also confrontation between human shape and it’s abstraction into geometrical frames.
Instead of using shading, the artist enforces the lines between two nuances of the same color : Like for instance the blue-green rectangular shapes near the thighs of the character. We can also see lines splitting the scenery behind : it’s like the horizon line is turned vertical. Even more, the change of color also influences the abstract drawings of the work : the white shape on the left of character’s head has red streaks on it while the same motif continues in blue when crossing the frontier to another area. These streaks give the impression that the painting could be some cloth.
The painting is clearly in two parts : blue on the upper two-thirds, red and yellow on the lower third, but this opposition is subtly balanced by other dynamics. First by the opposition between the blue hand and the red music instrument that the character is about to beat; then by the reminder of blue in the purple feet. Last, by the brown hair and legs that soften the opposition a bit. The painting also has a crayonné aspect that prevents it from being too aggressive. While the hand is very well defined, some other elements are blurred : eyes are black triangles with green and yellow streaks, the white jewelry is absorbed by a frightening black hole in the middle of the chest, and the lines are interrupted as though all light was being captured by the heart.
However, let me come to the most important element of this painting : this impression I have that the character is unbalanced not in its proportions, but in its attitude. It seems as though it’s about to fall from the frame, out of the painting, onto the beholder. It doesn’t show at first, but as you get closer to the painting, it becomes striking. With the arms open as they are, and this movement of a beating drum that is completely fixed, there is an ambiguity of mobility in immobility: character seems ready to give himself (or herself) away, and at the same time, dead, which might as well be two sides of the same reality. Hope, that leads you outside of frames and barriers, and despair that kills you when you are out of your own reality.
