Dakar Artist Residency

Sara Downham-Lotto 2022

In early spring 2022, during her visit to Senegal, Sara, was given a studio space at Dakar’s Village des Arts, where over a period of a few weeks, she consolidated work created in past months with the talibé* at Maison de la Gare** and Le Château Centre Culturel in Saint-Louis. Creating some of her best work to date, Sara was invited to take part in the Dakar Art Biennale 2022 with two of her Talibé Triptych pieces (see Talibé Paintings in the Gallery ).

Looking closely at Talibé Triptych and Little by Little the Bird Builds the Nest series, you’ll find clues as to how and where these paintings were started; all began as the work of talibé children, and makes for an interesting story:

‘In November-December 2021, I volunteered at the Maison de la Gare in Saint-Louis, facilitating drawing and painting and hip hop dancing with talibé boys. Unpacking my suitcase of paint brushes, paper, paints and pastels surrounded by curious boys aged 5-18, there was a contagious excitement and eagerness to get stuck in. ‘Ndank ndank’ (slowly slowly in Wolof)…. ‘plenty of time and plenty for everyone.’ Over a period of 4 weeks, my hip hop dance collaborator and I worked with over 300 boys bringing – at least – fleeting joy into their lives – at most – hope through new friendships and a confidence boost, that somewhere out there life can be good; a moment to leave the trauma of their existence behind. Together we collaboratively-created numerous large-scale drawings and paintings which I took back to the studio at Le Château to cut up and reassemble. Marrying my own practice of deconstruction and reconstruction with the children’s own playful experiments with paint and pastel, much of the work was then stitched together into large ‘patchwork panels’ by a local dressmaker.

For the happy memory, half of the final product – a giant, pieced-together painting – now hangs on the walls of Maison de la Gare. The rest, rolled up and packed in my backpack, came with me on my journey through Senegal. Arriving in the studio at Village des Arts in Dakar, the process continued; more cutting up, tearing, stitching, painting over, rubbing and scratching into, gluing onto board, layering, reassembling. The process takes over ….. with the work of the talibé barely visible, but nonetheless a very necessary start to the whole process of intuitive call and response. We made it together, in other words!’

For the more stories about working with the talibé and creative outcomes, see Project post Creative Voice for Senegal’s Talibé  and Gallery posts Pot Rouge and Talibé Paintings