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 met Yinka Shonibare at the workshop 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 had been working with my dad’s old family tent for a while, popping it up in several workshop projects, like at Shave in Somerset, and the Hermit Foundation in Plasy, with Hama Goro… It became a stand-in for my studio whilst I travelled.
Artists at TENQ worked in an empty school, it was almost derelict, with glassless windows but working fluorescent strip lights. I made a piece with a philosophy teacher I met there, where I made a latex cast from the enormous blackboard, including the chalked text of this teacher philosopher. The cast was then stretched and stapled, like a canvas, onto a frame.
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.