Ousmane Sow ... From malleable stuff to works of greatness

Back from a  trip to galleries, museums, monuments and whatnot littering the landscape of  Washington DC and vicinity.  Didn't concern myself with politics at all and surprisingly didn't miss the internet nor the news....not even by one teeny-weeny bit.     I made myself think and behave like the 75% of the world's population who does not give a damn about the antics of the politicians or the trickery of the political parties or listen, read or know anything about the ongoing state of  the world.  It was so liberating.

My companion was a Know-It-All from my family, whom I will name Kia for the purposes of this post and others to follow.

We were lucky to catch the exhibition of Ousmane Sow's  sculptures at one of the Smithsonian houses of  treasures.  The Smithsonian has organized an "African Mosaic"  which is a  crowd puller ... amazing and  truly wonderful works from  Sow and countless  other African artists.  We also got to watch a short documentary on Ousmane Sow.  The  Senegalese sculptor  divides his time between Paris and Senegal and most of his works are created in Senegal.   He has truly  taken the contemporary art scene by the throat and is making  people sit  up and take notice.

His 7-foot sculpture of Toussaint Louverture  (didn't know who he was until I saw the sculpture)  who was born into bondage in Haiti but rose to become the leader of the revolution that freed the slaves and made them into self-governing citizens of Haiti ... is something really awesome.  More awesome than all the works is how the sculptor sculpts and the materials he uses.  Ousmane Sow uses any kind of  material he can find ... straw, jute, fibre, etc.  and mixes it with rebar metals to a malleable gooey paste and uses his fingers to sculpt and mold figures of man and animal with this never before applied  medium.



I have to  go through the notes I made to help me recall most of what we saw, touched and read about.  I have to also check our cameras to see if  we captured any pics of Sow's work.  Maybe, I will update this post at a later date with more.

Right now, just wanted to let my usual visitors know that I am alive and well.  Thanks for the concern, it's appreciated