Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale

"That's beautiful." But they don't necessarily understand anything about it.

TM:If they did understand something about it, what would it be that they understood?

GS:They might understand that I have some personal problem or issue of feeling that I am expressing.

TM: What might such a personal problem or issue be?

GS: I have been influenced by the type of thing that Susan [Vogel] wrote about. It could be a personal sort of lack of equilibrium, it could be a personal issue, or something that has to do with the social or political situation.

TM:Your work does reflect the social environment?

GS:That's what Susan says. What I said to Susan was that I am trying to attain through painting a kind ofcalm or serenity. Susan sees something stronger. She has the right to say what she wants to.

TM:Do you agree with Susan that your work reflects social unrest?

GS:I agree that she has a right to see that in it.

TM:Do you think your work reflects social unrest?

GS: I feel that since the work is abstract people can see what they want to see in it. What I am looking for in my painting is a kind ofcalm and peace and serenity that's very personal.

I am looking for an interior calm that I am trying to find in myself.

TM:Is this interior calm based on the grasping of a pure form? Is there, to you,any reality in that concept?

GS:I feel that what I am doing is withdrawing to a place where I am looking for calm and peace while I am painting.

TM:Formally, in terms ofshape and structure, your work seems to emphasize horizontality, or a range from the diagonal to the horizontal.

GS: Yes, primarily they are horizontal and diagonal.

TM:And that involves the serenity idea?

GS:The horizontal, after all, is related to the idea of horizon.

TM:So there is landscape, the serenity of landscape?

GS: But I want a horizontal line that is dynamic. That is why I use the diagonal lines along with the horizontal, to make it more alive and dynamic.

TM:That's why I thought your work related to the work of de Stael. Do you agree that there might be a similarity?

GS:Yes, you are right.

TM:Insofar as your work is designed to go down in art history, to be recorded in art history, how do you see it contextualized in history as it will be written in the future? That's the first time you've laughed.

GS: I don't even think about that. I don't even think I am part of art history.

TM:Your work is just this crystalline expression of your selfhood, without any relation to anything else?

GS: I am concerned about showing what I do and communicating with other people. I want people to see it and be interested.

TM:So you agree that your work might speak to other sensibilities?

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