Daoude N’Diaye is a Senegalese artist, art lecturer and art therapist. In his work, Daoude experiments in recycling materials and memories through shredded photographs, statues made of rolled papers and a variety of other techniques. For the current exhibition at the African Studies Gallery, he has chosen a new challenge unique to his oeuvre: working in clay, etched with images from the visual history of Senegal and West Africa in general. Just like in the local artistic tradition, Senegalese artists have been using clay since time immemorial, hence Daoude’s choice of studying the motifs and forms used in his visual culture to stamp tablets of Israeli clay. These tablets will be joined together like totem poles and overlook the city of Tel Aviv from the high-rise gallery space.
Roy Maayanis a ceramics artist, a lecturer at the Benyamini Center, and graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (BFA) and of the Tel Aviv University’s Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts (MFA). In his work, Roy stretches the material and conceptual boundaries of the ceramic medium. This year, Roy was invited by the Israeli Embassy in Senegal for a two-week workshop at the Artists Village in Dakar. Prior to attending the workshop, Roy examined prevalent Israeli perceptions of the African continent. This study produced a series of representative visual images that were mostly stereotypical if not racist. In his work at the Artists Village, Roy covered these images with a mixture of earth from Senegal and Israel. Thus he metaphorically erased the norms he grew up with by covering it with a different normative system informed by acquaintance and cooperation with the Other.
Back to Earth is a joint project by the African Studies Gallery and the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center – both located in Tel Aviv – to create a site-specific installation for the gallery space. The work is a unique collaboration between Israeli artist Roy Maayan and Senegalese artist Daouda N’Diaye. It represents the culmination of their efforts to research materials and ideas from the two ancient cultures’ past, with a view to creating a hybrid combination between the two visual traditions in the form of a contemporary and universal work of art.
