Pamoja: Just a summertime, 1995
Photo essay by Djibril Sy
Photomural of the Pamoja group at the Bothy Café, Yorkshire Sculpture Park; sculpture by H Viljoen 72 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Colleen Madamombe carving a limestone Mother and child 74 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Colleen Madamombe with Noria Mabasa 76 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Shetani (Swahili: spirit), a work in clay by Reinata Sadhimba 78 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Portrait of Reinata Sadhimba 80 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Work in progress, Reinata Sadhimba 82 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Duke Ketye in conversation with Anthony Caro (1924-2013) 84 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Francis Nnaggenda tending his additive sculpture 86 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
Babacar Sedikh Traore; construction with tyres and metal Pamoja: Just a Summertime • Djibril Sy | 87
Babacar Sedikh Traoré and Di Carey of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park 88 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Harambee (Swahili: pull together), left to right, Mahlate, Viljoen, Chandia, Chirwa 90 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Frances Richardson carving a beechwood Journey 92 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Jon Isherwood power-sawing a wooden cable spool 94 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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Yorkshire Sculpture Park group photo. See Anna Kindersley’s article for an alternative version of this image, with numbered names 96 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA
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D
uring africa95’s Pamoja International Sculpture Workshop, artist Djibril Sy was photographer-in-residence. His captivating images were exhibited during the Workshop’s Open Weekend at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2-3 September 1995) and then at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, for the africa95 conferences also in September 1995. In an interview for the video Pamoja, the African Workshop at Yorkshire Sculpture Park filmed by Zuleika Kingdon, Sy describes his intuitive method, “If you come with your camera with the intention to take photos then you are in fact disturbing them. So I come every morning without my camera. I talk with the people, I go away. Then, they see me again later but I am in the distance; sometimes I come into an artist’s studio and I stay there peacefully in a corner. I watch them work and as soon as I feel I must do something. It is then that I pull out my camera and try to capture those moments which are expressive, both in the artist’s face and in the way he tackles his material, because all that is language.” (Z Kingdon 1995. The Film maker’s experience. unpublished report, p3). In summer 1997 Djibril Sy returned to the UK for a residency at the Delfina Studios London. Then, he prepared the photo essay and accompanying text herein. In conversation, I recall he described himself like a spider on the wall, that spent a lot of time observing what was going on around him before taking a shot. Le temps d’un ete
Just a summertime
Pourquoi, un photographie africain, de l’ouest surtout devrait, il documenter la mise en loge de 25 emminants artistes sculpteurs venue des differents continents? J’ai trouvé ma response le jour où nous nous sommes retrouvés tous ensemble dans ce magnifique espace du ‘Yorkshire Sculpture Park’ En tant qu’ artiste de ‘visual art’, j’etais fasciné par ces homes et ses femmes qui manipulent la pierre ou le bois pour leur donner des formes qui interpellent nos sens, le support photographique que j’utilise devrait permettre de porter le message de l’art contemporain africain ou delà de ses frontières. Mes allées et venues dans les differents ateliers, me faisent penser à l’araignée qui tisse sa toile inlassablement, pour en entendre les vibrations d’où qu’elles puissant venir. Ma convinction profounde est que l’interactivité entre artistes de culture differente permettrait à l’art africain d’avoir un discours universel.
For what reason would a West African photographer document the occasion of 25 eminent sculptors from all continents? I found the answer the day we all met in the magnificent space of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. As a visual artist I was fascinated by these men and women who work in stone or wood to create forms which touch our senses: my photographs could then be used to convey the messages of African contemporary art beyond its own boundaries. My comings and goings throughout the different studios made me feel like a spider continuously spinning its web, feeling the slightest vibration, from wherever it might come. My profound conviction is that ‘interactivity’ between artists from different cultures would help African art to reach a universal discourse.
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Sy’s photo montage, created 1997, during residency at the Delfina Studios, featuring Maty Niang and a Spanish co-resident
Translation: Gregoire le Divelle
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