INTERVIEW WITH SALIFOU LINDOU

IN YOUR SOLO SHOW DANS LE BRUIT DE LA VILLE, YOU RETURN TO YOUR EARLY PRACTICE OF COMPOSING WORKS FROM RECYCLED OBJECTS SUCH AS SHEET METAL. WHY DID YOU FEEL THE NEED TO REWORK THIS MATERIAL?

 

Yes, around 30 years ago, I started working with sheet metal because the city was modernizing and there was a kind of transformation due to the way advertising was done in the city. It was the advent of big billboards at crossroads. What really caught my attention was the anarchy, the haphazard placement of billboards, which was really brutal for the inhabitants, and me in particular. The disorder - that is, putting up signs and cluttering up not only the view but also the situation. Advertising was a good thing, it brought color to the city, but there was still a certain ambiguity that appealed to me, that of the urban disorder that was taking hold. 

 

That’s why, even in my painting, there was a desire to express myself on urbanity, and so by working a lot with materials, by making a lot of collages, I was seduced by sheet metal. Like everyone else, I was drawn to it because sheet metal is a very common material in African cities; it’s the easiest and cheapest way of roofing houses, especially in working-class neighborhoods. And so, for me, it was an accessible material, because sheet metal that has aged can be changed at any time. 

 

In my artistic approach, there was something that fascinated me about ancient African sculpture: the aged aspect. This was done on purpose by the artists or craftsmen of the time, but you could also see that the wear and tear of time was at work. The craftsmen were motivated by the desire to make the sculpture strong, powerful and worthy of its intended purpose. Aesthetics played a part in building the strength they wanted, and so they used tricks to age the object. 

 

This is the aspect that often appeals to me in ancient works of art, and the aged aspect of metal really spoke to me. The lived-in aspect of metal is fascinating, because it has rubbed shoulders with people, been manipulated by people, transformed by erosion, the sun, even the kitchen fire. This made sheet metal quite interesting for me in my artistic practice and especially in my plastic art.

AND DO YOU THINK THAT IN THE LATEST SERIES YOU HAVE DONE, YOU HAVE EXPLORED SHEET METAL IN A DIFFERENT WAY COMPARED THAN 30 YEARS AGO?

 

Yes, I explored sheet metal in a different way. I had done a lot of work on sheet metal in the past, but what motivated me much more was to take action in order to bring about the aging process I was talking about earlier. But as the sheet metal was already aged, I used it as is, in a crude way, in my work. 

 

Today’s approach is rather the opposite; in other words, I’m now working with new aluminum sheets. What drives me to revisit sheet metal is much more aesthetic.  I really enjoy engraving on sheet metal to reveal it. Today, I also wanted to sand the sheet to accentuate its graphic presence and texture. That’s what really motivated me. I really like changing the way I act on a support, like painting with a brush, engraving, carving... I like making changes because it allows me to remain myself, but to transform my aesthetic of the work. What’s really new in me working on sheet metal today is the intense sanding I do; I have realized that sheet metal is quite flat, but when it is sanded, it seems to come out of the surface. The places where we act seem to stand out, creating volume in a natural way. This observation motivated me to create other textures, other character shapes.

 

YOU ARE CONSTANTLY EXPERIMENTING WITH NEW MATERIALS TO SHAPE AND DESTRUCTURE MATTER. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND HOW YOU WORK WITH THESE DIFFERENT MATERIALS?

 

Artistic practice fundamentally starts from something, a base, a way of expressing oneself, of making graphics, of using colors. I believe that each person or artist has his or her own disposition. It is easy for me to switch from one material to another. Drawings and works are much more linked to simple lines, whereas in painting I’m really in the world of colors, even if I remain monochrome. My gestures will of course remain fundamentally the same, but something will happen according to the constraints of the medium and perhaps the tool I have in my hands. 

I like to work according to my moods with this or that material. And even when I’m working with the same material, I like to experiment. That is when I really feel alive, because I am looking at different things from different angles. That is why I often work on series which include different styles and different mediums... I move from one material to another so that it reveals things to me. Sheet metal is really the expression of what I am looking for. I am always questioning the material, the surface, the consistency and quintessence of the material. I want it to react through my art. Sheet metal expresses and describes my motivation.

 

ONE OF THE THEMES THAT OFTEN RECURS IN YOUR WORK IS THE URBAN. IN THIS NEW EXHIBITION, YOU COMBINE THE CITY, ITS CHAOS, ITS NOISE, ITS EFFERVESCENCE, BUT ALSO ITS INHABITANTS, WHO ARE AT THE HEART OF CERTAIN CANVASES. WITH THE CERCLE KAPSIKI, THAT YOU CO-FOUNDED IN 1998, YOUR AIM WAS TO INTRODUCE ART INTO THE CITY, AND NOW IT IS THE CITY THAT YOU ARE INTRODUCING TO YOUR ART. IS THIS A WAY OF PRESENTING TO THE PUBLIC YOUR BELOVED HOMETOWN, DOUALA?

 

Yes, it is a way of showing how I perceive the city. At the time, in Cercle Kapsiki, our concern was to be able to express ourselves first together by holding hands, as friends, and then to exchange ideas. Since the environment in which we lived didn’t offer enough places to show our work, we thought we could work together to express ourselves and create. We did a lot of collective work. At the time, we had a lot of fun doing things together. It was also a test of how much we could agree on things. There was a mutual respect between us and we knew how to listen to each other and find the collective point of view that emerged including the ideas of all those present - whether in artistic creation or in the harmony in which we wanted to operate. 

 

Apart from the collective, artistic work, we also had this preoccupation with inventing ourselves a place that could take part in actions and then, through methods, encourage people (especially the populations we lived with) to come to the exhibitions. Listening to people, we had the impression that they weren’t very interested in the artistic works produced. It is true that the African environment is often very difficult, because of poverty and precariousness, but we believed that art could change mentalities and that it was a shame that our loved ones didn’t understand our art. We came up with a way of working that involved setting up a space next door to Hervé Yamguen’s home in New Bell, a working-class neighborhood. We wanted to be close to Hervé, but also to a population that embodies working-class life.

 

The other part was really to set up this system that doesn’t just involve bringing people in, but going out to them. That means organizing things (exhibitions) in public places. For example, the Hors les murs project, a week-long workshop we did with street kids. Many of the works were produced using recycled materials. We did a large-scale installation on a boulevard about 500m long. All night long, we hung the works, which the public discovered at daybreak. We consciously involved these children, as they were more available and very often live in very complicated situations. There were movements that we had launched. We were thinking a lot about intangible concepts and wanted to take people on a journey using other media.

 

Today, my work continues to reflect on human beings and the environment in which they live. I bring people back into my painting. We express ourselves, we try to give meaning to what we see and share it with others. The fact that today I am returning to architectural work in which I am incorporating these characters is simply a continuation. It was to be expected. I used to draw people a lot, I was into figuration, but I’m still exploring the environment at the same time, with these same people, because I think it is all linked.

 

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR SOLO EXHIBITION DANS LE BRUIT DE LA VILLE CURRENTLY ON SHOW AT THE GALLERY (UNTIL JUNE 20^TH, 2023)?

 

We don’t realize it, perhaps because we live it every day, but we constantly hear the sounds of engines, horns, shouts and birdsongs. We do not even realize that we are living in the middle of a heap of moving and unmoving junk, starting at home with the noisy washing machine. The noise of cars when you go out, of motorcycles, of machines, of the shouts, words and songs you hear when you rub shoulders with people. Some people’s jobs are linked to traffic. I wanted to question all that. Plastically, you can’t work with noise without resorting to all kinds of spaces, smooth, hard, cold, warm, colored... I play with all that. 

 

I chose sheet metal to represent the metallic side of the city we live in today. That’s why I put colors on it, scratch it, try to find the light by sanding. The way I engrave is motivated by the desire for the public to hear and feel the sound of the engraving pen and to hear the sanding. I hope I managed to do that. This metallic side that I reveal in my paintings is like a cry, and I hope that all this desire I had when I arrived at the AFIKARIS residency has been expressed in my works.

 

THE WORK L’ÉTREINTE IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM YOUR USUAL WORK, WHOSE CANVASES OFTEN REVEAL A TANGLE OF LINES AND STROKES, WITH AN ENERGETIC AND VERY INTENSE GESTURE. THIS NEW WORK ON SHEET METAL TAKES A MORE MINIMALIST APPROACH. IS THIS A NEW DIRECTION YOU WISH TO EXPRESS?

 

I would say it is the culmination of all the questions I asked myself when I arrived here, which came to fruition during my residency. I’m a doer who likes to think that artistic expression starts from a desire for freedom. Freedom allows you to enter into an abundance of experimentation, in a quest to achieve something purer, simpler. I’ve managed to put just a few lines in the drawings and see things more clearly, and it’s the same for metal. It is the ultimate achievement to explore metal. It (the sheet metal) looks less colorful because I have made the colors go away. Then sheet metal took over.

THERE IS A LARGE PIECE IN THE EXHIBITION, SOCIAL GAME. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THIS WORK?

 

There came a point when I wanted to combine two subjects that I have dealt with in the form of series. I have done a lot of works on politicians. I feel involved in my work, I try to express myself on the events happening in my country and even in the world. I express this, especially when it comes to politics, through characters I have imagined. These are politicians in striped uniforms. For me, stripes are refinement. I grew up thinking that lines on clothes express refinement and grandeur. Men of power are in search of greatness, maybe it (greatness) even finds them. I am concerned by the situation in which certain countries find themselves, due to the not-so-correct attitudes of our leaders, who hoard money, embezzle, and prevent development in health care, schools...

 

So I work in series, sometimes repetitively, but I make the effort to change situations. I manage because there are so many situations that, despite their seriousness, can be turned into humor. When the situation is very serious, sometimes the only way to talk about it is to laugh about it, to make fun of it. That is why I like mimicry and grand gestures. Politicians often don’t do everything they say once they have been elected. The most ridiculous thing is that at election time, the same people come out with the same speeches. To get through, they corrupt the people, the inhabitants. That’s why my work is full of humor.

WHY, IN THE SOCIAL GAME SERIES, ARE THE POLITICIANS MINGLED WITH THE LOCALS? 

 

Indeed, Social Game is a mix because I have done a lot of works on the issue of conflict in north-west Cameroon, and I felt that uprooting is the most serious part of the problem, i.e. people moving and leaving their land. I wanted to express myself on this. There are a lot of characters and crowds in situations of exile, even static ones, who are as helpless as in our cities. I wanted to put people’s precariousness, misery and terrible situations into my painting, to make them cohabit (with politicians). In the painting, you can feel the tension in the looks and attitudes of depressed people, and the grand gestures of politicians who stand by them but don’t listen.