In 1995, in Saint Louis du Senegal, a Triangle workshop – TENQ – took place as part of Africa 95.
La Maison Qui Bouge – I made a tent with a tailor from the local market in Saint Louis de Senegal. I had been working with my dad’s old family tent for a while, installing it in several workshop projects, eg. at Shave in Somerset, for Bring and Buy Sale and the Hermit Foundation in Plasy, with Mali artist Hama Goro… It became a stand-in for my studio whilst I travelled. At TENQ I met Yinka Shonibare so I suddenly felt I was treading on his toes but at the same time I’d had the idea to use this fabric long before I knew his work. I exhibited it in te Rijksakademie Open Studios show in Amsterdam later in the year. alongside a photograph from On Site in Bermondsey.
The participating artists worked in an empty school, it was almost derelict, with glassless windows but working fluorescent strip lights. I made a sculpture titled Premierement mettre les choses en place…with a philosophy teacher there, where I took a liquid latex cast from the blackboard, taking an impression of the chalked text of the teacher philosopher. The dried latex cast was then stretched and stapled, like a canvas, onto a frame for exhibition.
Something to do with osmosis – I was interested by the non branded plastic bags (no supermarkets only street markets).
Aknowledgments
Africa 95, Robert Loder, Triangle Network, El Hadj Si, Clementine Deliss
Archive
Clementine Deliss writing gives a contextual understanding – In Reply to Yinka Shonibare and brothers-in-arms
Artists notes, artefacts, transparencies, the tent.