Tethered to the spiritual realm, blue connotes a sense of serenity and healing in Yoruba culture. It’s also the color of peace, and for Romuald Hazoumè, it’s an apt metaphor for considering the legacy of colonial violence, climate catastrophe, and the global crises transforming life today. His creations offer a profound exploration of these themes through art.
Exploring Romuald Hazoumè’s Artwork
In My Blue Period at October Gallery, the artist meditates on the contemporary geopolitical landscape through a series of masks made from plastic jugs and found objects like feathers, netting, and hardened paintbrushes. The expressive sculptures are part of Hazoumè’s series titled masques bidons, or fake masks, which utilize the functional structures of the vessels—circular openings for mouths, handles for noses—to form abstracted figures. These masks are both innovative in design and poignant in message, making use of everyday materials.
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The title of the exhibition references Pablo Picasso’s blue period, which emerged from his depression following the death of a friend, and preceded the Spanish artist’s African period in which he appropriated masking traditions from across the continent. Like Picasso, Hazoumé assembles found objects into minimal forms. “My intention is always to create works where no single element is ever overtaken by another,” he says. “For me, it’s crucial that you never lose sight of the container (bidon) yet still believe in the illusion. The bidon’s presence taunts you, making you conscious that it’s you projecting that ‘face’ you ‘see’ onto those plastic materials.”
Unlike the Spanish artist, though, Hazoumé isn’t concerned with his personal experience but rather ecological destruction, genocide, and armed conflicts threatening life on Earth. While earlier works in the series depicted men and large-scale issues of migration and collapse, the newer additions center on women and particular tragedies. From “the mother in Gaza killed by a sniper while seeking bread for her children” to “the grief-stricken Russian widow, who poisoned herself after both her sons died,” the stories referenced in sculpture are a way to bear witness. Hazoumé writes:
This work I do affects me deeply. I’m not making masks for other people, I’m making them for myself, trying to translate what I feel into something concrete, which stands apart from me, but reflects my innermost feelings. While making them, I gathered ordinary names from tragic tales reported in the news coming from all corners of the globe. The story is on an endless loop; women as ‘second rate beings’, continually abused and ground down by the cruelty of men. Using these transformations, Hazoumé turns tragic narratives into powerful works of art.
While evoking the blue line, Hazoumé considers it to be a counter to the “red lines” continually invoked in war and the crimson color of blood. “I imagined a balancing ‘blue line’ to stress the need to reduce global suffering and restore some hope of positive progress,” the artist says. “We need this blue middle ground to regain sympathy for each other, to help make life worth living again.” Through his plastic masks, the artist envisions a world where empathy prevails.
Further your understanding of art’s role in expressing complex social issues with Simon Laveuve’s Enchanting Miniatures that capture precarious life’s intricacies.
My Blue Period runs through November 21 in London. For those interested in social commentary through art, these works provide a unique perspective that challenges and inspires.
Sources & Links
Source: thisiscolossal.com
Frequently asked questions
What themes does Romuald Hazoumè explore in his artwork?
Romuald Hazoumè explores themes such as colonial violence, climate catastrophe, and global crises. His series ‘masques bidons’ utilizes masks made from everyday materials to convey these themes.
How does Romuald Hazoumè create his masks?
Romuald Hazoumè creates his masks from plastic jugs and found objects like feathers, netting, and hardened paintbrushes. He uses the functional structures of the vessels—circular openings for mouths, handles for noses—to form abstracted figures.
What influence does the color blue have in Hazoumè’s work?
In Yoruba culture, blue connotes serenity, healing, and peace, which Romuald Hazoumè uses as a metaphor to consider colonial violence, ecological destruction, and global crises. The blue line represents a counter to war and suffering, suggesting a need for empathy and hope.
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