At first glance, ‘Judging by language’ hung on the white background of a gallery wall, has an imposing presence due to its format (230 x 185 x 30 centimeters), dramatic in its form, a heterogeneous white and centered of an intriguing black circle, it is found almost both intimidating and bizarre.
How to approach it? Like a plastic surgeon? we could well divide it in this case by a horizontal imaginary line and separate its upper part marked by the presence of circles and curves which float and this lower part which descends in free fall.
Maybe it is a pareidolia, but I also see in it a huge eye, wide open, which observes the one who is looking at it with a powerful and intense gaze. To detect the intrigue and tie up what this look can communicate I am looking for another picture that offers a more detailed vision, and there, I have the impression of approaching the iceberg like a titanic approaching its collision.
This eye I immerse myself in is a mesh of keyboard keys pressed together by transparent threads that almost recalls the way of assembling a necklace of African pearls.
What paths did these keys take before landing in the hands of the artist and his assistants? How many electronic keyboards did they have to collect and dismantle?
How many hands have gone out of their way to haphazardly put together hundreds of letters that say nothing and yet the work speaks!In fact , the title leaves us very perplexed about our way of communicating with this work, of understanding it. Because it is about inventing a new language and creating new stories.
I did not have a particular attraction for sculptures, besides, the work of Takadiwa is more recognizable as a tapestry than as a sculpture. Because despite the rigid texture of each plastic touch, the assembly of the repeated pattern gives the whole a certain fluidity and aestheticism that reminds us of contemporary tapestries. The work is traversed with a certain movement, similar to that of waves laden with tears which traverse the eye of the sculpture to end up on the floor of the gallery in a violent and graceful way at the same time. We almost want to reach out to explore and rediscover this all too familiar material, a desire to touch the keyboards in a completely new way, and to explore letters differently.
What is interesting about the work, apart from the accessibility of its material and the process of its creation, is above all the intention of the artist and the message he conveys through. Surprising and daring to be able to intentionally bring back the debris to the white cube.
The artist, having acquired the power to bypass the ‘natural’ and usual ’path of electronic waste, from a landfill to a gallery, which leaves us perplexed, questioning the value of the work and the raw material that shapes it. Although keyboards are not ,a priori, of great value once dispensed from the hands of its user, the resulted artwork is a faithful example of the famous quote:
“The garbage of some is the treasure of others.” they are not objects which acquire a second life but which also gain in value.
This work did not just provide me with a possible answer to my question but it carried in its mesh the utopian vision of the artist. Indeed, In this particular work I find the hope that lies in this realization: That the artist throughout his creation process becomes a bit like this Walt Disney fairy who with a magic wand transforms pumpkins into carriages.
AUTHOR
Safa Attyaoui
