PLASTICIAN ARTIST
HABIBATOU YAYE KEITA
PRESENTATION OF THE ARTIST
A founding member of the Sanou’Arts collective, after graduating in plastic arts from the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers Multimédia in Bamako, the Malian artist earned her first money in hairdressing. It is this talent for hairdressing that she translates into painting to create works that are as seductive in their subject matter as they are in their aesthetics.
Her visual work is inspired by the cultural richness of her country, Mali, and the traditional hairstyles that she highlights through her art, while offering a mixed technique of weaving wool on canvas with acrylic paint.
Most often, she creates self-portraits in which she wears a variety of traditional hairstyles. Her imagination explores themes such as the role and place of women in contemporary society, the importance of hairstyles in African customs and their preservation, and the meaning of the word ‘natural’ in a globalised society influenced by surgery and voluntary depigmentation.
THE PIECES CREATED
DURING THE “MBEDD MI MBEDDUM BUUR LA” RESIDENCE
NIAMA
Niama means rubbish in English.
With this little boy sitting next to the rubbish with his canteen, I wanted to show, in an ironic way, the ‘beauty’ of pollution.
In the end, we become so used to living in the middle of rubbish, in the middle of disorder, that we live there without embarrassment and above all without awareness of this reality and its consequences.
NONGO
The title of my painting means “Dirt”.
The two children are playing with water and drinking the same water, a source of life but which, if undrinkable, can cause them health problems.