BONA SAWA

Sensual Abstracts and other paintings

ALPHONSE MPEKE BY ALPHONSE MPEKE

In this century of communication and information, I choose to convey my emotion, my feelings, my hopes also my frustrations and my expectations through out my paintings photographied and writings. Expressing myself remains vital as I never said much as a child growing up in the confusing context that often exists in Africa. My painting is first of all a therapy against my personal ghosts or demons. It is a non-ending exploration of myself in order to have answers to the multitude of questions I ask myself since I started being aware of the world around me. Academically, my painting is my self literacy. Sensual abstracts and other paintings have their roots deep in my childhood in two towns of Cameroon called Kribi and Douala. They are the major places where I discovered the gift of drawing and painting as well as writing poems and novels as a medicine against life vicissitudes. Having said that, I will in this short speech, define, describe, and explain sensual abstracts and other paintings. I will also talk about the aesthetic in Mpeke Fine Art as well as the search for equilibrium in perpetual mutation of the society in which we are. Finally, I will situate gender complementarity's in terms of sensual abstracts.

AN APPROACH OF DEFINITION OF SENSUAL ABSTRACTS

Before going any further, it may be necessary first of all to define the concept 'sensual abstracts and other paintings' as far as my artistic work is concerned. In order to do so I am obliged to break down the title in two to have two dimensions of the definition. The first dimension of the definition is the 'sensual abstract' concept: 'Sensual Abstract' is an attempt to combine and expose genders duality in colourful, bold, surrealist and confused shapes. It is a modern poem to appraise reciprocally the plastic aesthetic of our body intimacy. It is a hymn for genders respect and mutual appreciation. It is an acceptance of differences and recognition of complementarity's also between genders. The other paintings are about literacy of my perception and representation of the society where I live or have lived and also my involvement in changing certain misconceptions generating the breakdown of our societal equilibrium. Overall, 'Sensual Abstracts and other paintings' is an exploration of myself in my inner world in relation to the outside world in order to find a balance through shapes and colours taken off the walls of my imagination to enable my artistic production.

THE INSPIRATION DRAIN

FANTASY.

Before creating a piece of art, there is always a motivation, inspired by something or simply an obsess ional imagery or shape that will stick in my mind for couple of hours until I draw it on a sketch book or on a canvas.   It can be also an inspiration coming from things surrounding me or any other form of entertainment(i.e. a Jazz concert, a musical, a classic music concert, a piece of theatre, an opera, landscape and cityscapes as, a conversation and lectures…

MPEKE FINE ART: THE TECHNIQUE

In order to generate a piece of art, I used knives, brushes, acrylics, oils paints, pastels, aquarelles, crayons, colours crayons, Gel gloss, cards pads, canvas, sketches books and all other materials that nature can put under my hands (dry woods, dry flowers and leaves etc…I learnt to draw by myself redrawing the cartoons of my childhood with ink pen, crayon and pencils. Like many other self-taught drawers, I am also exploring what my contemporaries have done sometime.

MPEKE FINE ART'S STYLE

The dyslexic impact disables me but enable my eclectics and intense imaginary.   I discovered in my art work the so called 'style' during my passage at the Royal Academy of Fine Art of Liege in Belgium as a self-taught student and through out my several readings and personal' research in Fine art. My style is finger printing used by the African expressionism and impressionism of the 50's and 70's, western contemporary, the impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, collage, naturalism and sensual abstract instigated and promoted by myself. In my teen years I have admired the ancient Egyptian painters, the African expressionists such as Francis Mbella (Cameroon) Jacob Yacuba (Senegal), Christ Ofili (Nigeria) as well as Dali (Spain), Picasso (Spain), Gauguin (France), Vermeer de Delft (Netherlands), Courbet (France), Van Gogh (Netherlands) and other, have caught my admiration since childhood and teenager hood.

THE NOTION OF AESTHETIC IN ALPHONSE MPEKE ART

In my point of view, the aesthetic is what we see, we like and we keep in our mind. I am not denying the notion of relativity surrounding the notion of aesthetic and am aware of the hypothesis that what can be beautiful for you may not be for me. As far as my work is concerned, the aesthetic is first of all the accomplished mission of each piece of art: the feeling of recovering of some of my   childhood's   wounds and the liberation   from those mental wires that keep me enslaved to what has been put in my mind. My colours are inspired by fruits and nature. They are warm and lively. My aesthetic    some time pushes the boundaries of the ethic. My shapes are often informed by my cultural background, messed up with a lot of confusing and religious values and philosophical principles. That is where my abstract lies. Abstract is my hesitations, my frustrations as the society remind me all the time what to do and not.

Nevertheless, what will be Sensual Abstracts without all those contrasts' that make me, after all, who I am, perpetually looking to self realisation, fighting against myself and being able to express my confusion in an order and harmonised mess. 'Lavish, sinuous shapes and bold colours reminiscent of Gauguin's' his paintings have an undisputed quality of style, artistic maturity and generosity' Yara (2005). The particular discourse of sensuality and sexuality within my work, not only connotes depth of feeling and thought, but also evokes humour and fantasies illustrating my never ending need for inner freedom and personal expression. My sensual, yet abstract style executed with my own particular techniques and 'trade secrets', awaken your sensibilities by lifting the sails of your sensual imaginations.

THE NON ENDING SEARCH OF EQUILIBRIUM

I found my equilibrium often in the harmony of shapes and colours that I generate. The reflection of each paintings reveal to me another dimension of myself. The equilibrium is everywhere as everywhere is a source of my inspiration.   Sometime, 'somewhere' is so far and difficult to reach, that I just look for that equilibrium within myself. Nevertheless, the search for the equilibrium lead me also to explore   'else where', looking for large spaces, cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and other forms of natural visual entertainment. I am looking for the equilibrium in the material and the soul as both are non separable elements of the existence. The material, supports, secures, and embodies the soul constantly wandering in order to give absolute and metaphysical dimension to the object I generated. Apart from my passion for painting I hold an interest in the human sciences such as Psychotherapy, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Education, and community development.

GENDER COMPLEMETARITY'S IN SENSUAL ABSTRACTS

We leave in a society where gender are opposed instead of conciliated by the domineering class. It is generating an unbalanced society where the societal tissue is manipulated and eroded, burst by those ruling the rules. The gender inequality as the gender oppression is same of kind conception generated by those having interest in that inequality generated by those comparing and consequently dividing genders showing them in conflicting postures. My sensual abstracts conciliate both genders in one sole piece of work as a symbol of mixture, and complementarity's as opposed to the simplistic confrontation of both genders instigated and promoted by who benefit from   this confusion. In sensual abstracts find ways of appraising your partner so as to break any taboo of any sort that is stopping you to exploring yourself and reaching your own self realisation as an individual freedom./.

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