ART-PRESENTATION: Abdoulaye Konaté-Symphonie En Couleur
Abdoulaye Konaté studied painting in Bamako, Mali and then Havana, Cuba. He later combined his painting skills with installation work to make a powerful commentary on political and environmental affairs. His monumental fabric-based works breathe fresh life into West Africa’s rich and dynamic textile traditions. Drawing upon textiles as his primary medium, Konaté composes abstract and figurative tableaux.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Blain|Southern Gallery Archive
Abdoulaye Konaté’s solo exhibition “Symphonie en couleur” comprises entirely new works of abstract tableaux inspired by the hues found in rocks and minerals. In the ‘90s Abdoulaye Konaté took up one of the great issues for West Africa, the encroachment of the Sahel. Since the millennium, his work depicts the devastating effects of AIDS on society and on individuals. His questioning of the political, social and economic scenes in contemporary Mali is evident in how AIDS, wars, ecological issues, human rights, globalisation affects all aspects of life and individuals within society. Konaté’s vivid, fabric-based installations have their roots in his Malian homeland. The woven and dyed cotton that he uses, draws from the country’s rich historical tradition whilst his adaptation of the materials roots his work firmly in the contemporary. Inspired by capes worn by Senufo* musicians, Konaté has developed a system of using layers of coloured ribbons to explore painterly ideas of composition and colour. This sophisticated abstraction also alludes to the underlying relationship between colour gradations and musical tonalities, music being central to Malian culture. The strips of cotton that make up each work are hand-embroidered and stitched together so that each artwork is deeply layered and laden with texture.
Info: Blain|Southern Gallery, 4 Hanover Square, London, Duration: 2-24/9/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 10:00-17:00, www.blainsouthern.com
* The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from Southern Mali to Katiola in Ivory Coast. One important aspect is that the Senoufo think of themselves as one group, with all of their ideas pointing in the same direction.
