ORIS (Series of 40 Heads) KEVIN-ADEMOLA SANGOSANYA

  • Dimensions : 34 × 42 cm
  • Year : 2022
  • Medium : Chinese ink Coffee Felt Mixed media Wood bark
  • Support : Canvas on paper mounted on wood
  • Signature : Signed and dated by artist
  • Editions : Unique work

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WORK

The work Yoruba Trinity, the experience of matter according to IFA and the series of heads (Oris), produced on the occasion of the exhibition OBJECTS IN MOTION WILL STAY IN MOTION (An in depth conversation with the Ori), are an extraordinary gateway to its unique universe, as much by their aesthetics as by their symbolism. They are a visual transcription of the spiritual concept of "Ori", a kind of "intuition", the voice and the engine that guides us. Literally translating to "head", "Ori" could echo in Western culture with the unconscious or the "superego". It is a being in being, with its own will, a spirit that has chosen a head and a body to incarnate.

The series of 40 Oris heads thus symbolizes all the variety and potential of the different "tastes" and shapes of the "head". “What is ours? "How to recognize this?" ". It is with our own identity that Kevin-Adémola comes to confront us. Because it is what makes us who we are. We must therefore know how to listen to each other to find the one that suits us. Sangosanya's works can therefore themselves be perceived as metaphysical but also "physical" (both visual and tactile) "guides" towards this alignment.

The contour of the heads are also composed of a checkerboard with small white-beige and black tiles which, like the world of Matrix, evokes the dreamlike universe of the artist's mind, an inner world in which we are here. projected as if to better manage to touch the essence of his soul.


ARTIST

Of French and Yoruba origin, Kevin-Ademola SANGOSANYA was born in Longjumeau (91) in 1996. Even if the environment in which he grew up did not intend him to become an artist, his mother being a scientist from a working class background and his father, a Nigerian immigrant, a former soldier, he felt a vital need to draw all day long at a very young age. His mother encouraged him to take drawing lessons after college, but as he mostly painted monsters and dinosaurs, he was quickly directed towards a scientific career. At 15, he wants to be a paleontologist and then a geneticist specializing in endangered species. His love for Nigeria, where he has traveled very often since his childhood to visit his grandparents, leads him to focus on endangered gorillas. Thinking that the best way to protect them would be to allow them to live in an environment where they would not be hunted, he decided after his baccalaureate to focus on sustainable development and began studying agronomy engineering. At 17 he discovers independence and student life. He leaves the family nest to move closer to Paris and settles in residence in Cergy. He did many internships abroad as part of his studies, including his graduation internship where he spent 8 months in Nigeria working on the conservation of forest species, reforestation, and the study of medicinal plants, food and sacred which make the link between the three areas that fascinate him, the preservation of culture, the sustenance of populations and spirituality.

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