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[theartmole]

AfroGallonism

In 2017/2018 I lived in Tamale, Ghana for about six months. During daily life in Ghana I noticed that ‘yellow gallons’ were spread through the whole country, currently the gallons are used to transport water. If I go back to my memories of Ghana; images of yellow gallons haunt me. Ghana felt like a home and since my homecoming, I guess, I suffered some kind of ‘homesickness’. I ate, slept and breathed Ghanaian artists and during this time I fell in love with work by - in Accra’s born artist - ‘Serge Attukwei Clottey’ (born 1985).

Serge Attukwei Clottey investigates the power from everyday objects. His work is usually inspired by personal experiences, histories of trade and migration, and political - and environmental related issues or topics. Among other projects, he is the mastermind behind the artistic project ‘AfroGallonism’. Afrogallonism points out miscellaneous issues and questions connected to the yellow gallons.

What are yellow gallons? Yellow gallons are oil containers brought from Europe to West-Africa and nowadays the gallons are still visible in West-Africa’s daily life. In Ghana the gallons are mostly used for transporting water. There is barrenly storage space, because - with other plastic, cars or further garbage - there are many yellow gallons brought to West-Africa. Serge Attukwei Clottey started to create artworks by connecting cutted pieces of yellow gallon. He also describes this as a way of finding a solution for the gallon overload. Among other things, the yellow gallons became a symbol for my lovely stay in Ghana. When I discovered Attukwei’s AfroGallonism project, it was love at first sight. By the ‘AfroGallonism’ project, I discovered that the object itself isn’t only a symbol for me, but also for Serge Attukwei Clottey. His project made me aware of the history and issues that the yellow gallon symbolizes. Among other things, the yellow gallon in AfroGallonism recapitulates economic - and consumption issues and shows - still existing - influences from Europe and America in Ghana. 

Every time I explore his projects I become more amazed by his work. Nowadays there are around 100 people involved in the project. He educated his community and created jobs. Every time I explore his projects I become more amazed by his work: lately, he carpets the road with his work to mark the area that belongs to his family. This project refers to poor communities that can’t proof land ownership due to a lack of proper documentation (Kylie Kiunguyu, 2018). What do I like so much about his work? Attukwei’s work presents opportunities and finding solutions for certain issues in a positive and creative way. That’s something I personally embrace. Source images: https://www.instagram.com/afrogallonism/?hl=nl

[theartmole]

I find David Lynch a very intriguing human being. From scary chicken to Twin Peaks, I love all of his work. In this video he shares his thought about transcendental meditation and pure consciousness, and its influence on the creative proces. It would be a pleasure for me to meet this guy one day! <3 

[theartmole]

Touch me not

My friend - Jo - is from Poland and last December she went there for her study. Me and my friend - An -  joined her. On Sunday we felt lazy, because we were wandering through Warsaw for days. We had enough from the crowded city and it was cold as fuck. So we wanted to check out a film.

I read something about ‘Touch me not’ that played at ‘Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art’s cinema’. You can spend a whole day at the Ujazdowski Castle: it’s located in a park, it has a gallery, a bookshop - that offers a collection with critical books that change your worldview, to books that show an exhibition - and, also important, a coffee-bar/restaurant. Anyways, let’s go back to ‘Touch me not’ by Romanian director Adina Pintilie. The film information said something about issues with intimacy and exploring beauty by the use of different bodies. Also there was some comment about dealing with stuck and hidden - unreleased - emotions. In the film we follow Laura, Tomas and Christian that explorer their intimacy that comes with fear and shame. Arrived at the cinema, we took our seats and also friends, couples or families trickled in. I breathed a watch-a-arthouse-film-on-a-calm-sunday kind of atmosphere. The film started with a skin close-up that lead us to a penis. Ok, nice shot. I liked that. During the film, the scenes became more intense. It went from bondage scenes to, Laura crying her heart out to, shots of roughly fingering a pussy, to Christian staring into the camera and shares his sexual experiences and desires for connection while he is drooling.

Connecting Christians drooling face to the sexual scenes, felt uncomfortable. I felt disgusted, and because of that I felt embarrassed. I became anxious for the next sexual scene and I didn’t know where its intensity would reach its climax. Touch me not dragged me through multiple emotions. Among other things; I cried, I laughed, I was sexualy tirggered, embarrassed and disgusted. Why? Do I have suffer the same issue as the main characters? However, I wasn’t alone with my discomfort. I saw plenty people pushed back in their seats like their were Neil Armstrong launched to the moon and when the flight came to its end: nobody stood up. Nobody gazed around, eyes were freezed at the screen while they swallowed their forgotten saliva. When An looked at me, she commented “What. THE. Fuck”. So, no. It wasn’t only me that felt a bit weird.

An and I were convinced that ‘Touch me not’ was an eye-opener and we expected everyone sharing this opinion. So, I - being naive as I am - was astonished to discover IMDB’s score of 6.2 and negative and even angry reviews. By some the film is judged as offensive and a disrespect towards it viewers, some called the film pretentious. Others called it a masterpiece and totally worth watching. Interesting fact: on average, females voted 7.1 and males voted 5.9. So, does that mean a gender issue is included? Or is it just coincidence? Why is this movie so negative for some of us? And why did I felt so awkward and connected with the characters? 

Anyhow, I think those questions and the various opinions actually proof that Pintilie did a good job. Eventually she pointed out some issues that are clearly ready for discussion.