Pascale Marthine Tayou

Pascale Marthine Tayou’s work explores mobility, economics and the environment. He lives and works in Ghent, Belgium but mostly works with objects found in his home country of Cameroon. Using repurposed objects is central to Tayou’s practice. He says that ‘choosing an object allows me to give it a new lease of life – like the dead leaves we walk over, for instance. I re-use them in a precise context.’

A moped hangs at the centre of the sculptural installation Bend Skin Contrevents. Woven baskets as well as calabashes (dried gourds) almost conceal it from view. Calabashes are traditionally used in West Africa as musical instruments, food containers and ritual objects. Known in Cameroon as ‘bend skins’, mopeds help transport large quantities of baskets, plastic bottles and other products. These heavy loads threaten to almost bend the mopeds that support them. A horsehair tail hangs from the rear of the sculpture, in reference to alternative modes of transport.

The hand-blown crystal Poupées Pascales (Pascale’s dolls) are inspired by wooden African sculptures. Tayou has embellished them with materials such as chocolate, feathers, medicinal herbs, bottles and stockings. These refer to Cameroonian rituals as well as colonial histories of trade and economic exchange. Tayou combines historical craft techniques with traditional African art forms in a playful and personal way. Tayou explains that ‘the world is my inspiration; it is so large and full of objects which through their diversity help me bring about solutions to my existential questions.