Zone Trois Galerie , Bordeaux, France
Gallerist, Jules Duplantier
“HERE BY DRAGONS” is an exhibition delving into the mythologies that have emerged to fill the void within the Black European diaspora. Drawing from accumulated mythologies, misconceptions, and folkloric traditions, each artwork contemplates the contemporary confluence of 'Black' identities with their encounters amidst 'British' ones. Central to the exhibition lies a discourse between dark graphite marks on white paper, wherein shapes serve as a conduit to ephemerally depict humanity, gender, and animality, animating the myths which have been described in this identity's past. By eschewing conventional representations of reality, the artworks deliberately embrace mythologies, prompting viewers to reconsider established notions of entrenched Western paradigms of representation, offering a space were symbolism reigns supreme. Embedded within the sinuous lines and contours of each piece, a myriad of interpretative layers unfolds, fluidly oscillating between conceptual territories, human embodiments, and enigmatic forms. Up close, the artworks pulsate with an inherent vitality, their organic forms suggesting a living consciousness captured on canvas. Yet, stepping back, they reveal a cartographic-like quality, their schematic nature inviting viewers to explore narratives that transcend individual bodies and extend into the expansive realm of imagination and collective memory. From the corporeal to the geographical, from bodies to lands, the narratives contained within the middle ground of these works unfold the liminal spaces between myth and identity, inviting new territories of mythologies.