ART Habens
Mbeng Pouka
to be assisted by curators. To exhibit their work, they need an opportunity from a gallery or to apply for an art fair. They are powerless and dependent. Just like these wonderful questions I’m answering, surely I won’t turn in my grave listening to a curator describing my artwork from his own mind as it is impossible to accurately repeat the words of another by not taking his place. I’m separating work in my website to make it easier for people to choose a category, but in my mind what I want to express - if there is a need to mix abstract with surrealism to make it happen – I never hesitate. I am not the generation who before drinking the wine on the table have to wipe his mouth with a napkin or use the knife with one hand and the fork with another. The free mind has no limitations. Your artworks are carefully composed and you often geometrical patterns with organic elements, to create such a coherent combination between intuition and rigorous aesthetics: do you conceive you works instinctively or do you methodically elaborate your pieces? In particular, how importance does spontaneity play in your work? One of the most important stages before the realisation after the conception of the idea, is to let it grow in the mind. When the inspiration first appears it’s just as a title. The more I think of it, the more it grows and after a while I can picture the image. The large canvases like ‘A Place Called Heaven’ (5.4 m x 4.2 m), ‘The Rapture’ (3.9 x 1.95 m), ‘The Crucifixion’ (7.5 x 4.5 m) or ‘I AM’ (18 m x 2.1 m) could not have been completed in one canvas, viewing their size compared to my small studio at that time. ‘I AM’ is 18 metres long x 2.10 m high whilst in that time, almost 10 years ago, my studio was 3.5 m x 2.5 m. I designed it in 12 different panels of 1.5 x 2.1 m and worked progressively with 2 panels, when the first one was complete adding
Special Issue
Women pirogue 165x92 cm
the third onto the second and so on. I spent time buying books, watching documentaries and searching information to complete the knowledge and the drawings before deciding how to elaborate the entire painting. ‘The Crucifixion’ I spent more than a year to have the
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