Pascale Tayou playfully unpacks serious topics at Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation

Pascale Marthine Tayou likes to “play seriously”.

The Cameroonian artist is currently presenting two exhibitions at Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation. The flagship exhibition is Lobi Lobi, and it brings together decades of work by Tayou. Bobo Land, on the other hand, takes motifs found in Tayou’s works to create an exhibition for children with interactive installations and puzzles.

Both exhibitions are founded in Tayou’s lighthearted approach to unpacking grave topics, or as the artist explains, “trying to find something more serious in this act of playing”.

In Lobi Lobi, Tayou uses colourful chalk, aluminium sheets, glass, fabrics on wood, microphone cables and clear crystals to examine issues that range from human displacement to the global scuffle for resources. The works reel the eye with their vibrancy and collage of materials.

It is only upon deeper examination, however, that their more pressing concerns are revealed: from the danger that material and consumer culture is imposing on the natural world to postcolonial examinations.

The exhibition’s title is taken from a saying in the Lingala language. Tayou had previously written a poem called Lobi Lobi, in which he tries to unpack its trifold meaning. The expression signifies the day before yesterday, the day after tomorrow, as well as imminent time.

Tayou has long sought to inhabit this vantage point when making art, even before he found Lobi Lobi to be an elegant summation of his practice.

“Lobi Lobi is very simple,” he says. “It is how to be here now. And to be here now means you are the sum of what happened yesterday, while also being the projection of what will happen tomorrow.”

The exhibition opens with Arbre de vie, or Tree of Life. In the 2015 work, a large olive tree rises from a sandy mound laid with brilliant stones. The tree doesn’t bare leaves or fruit, but rather large, bulbous glass masks with a range of expressions. Arbre de vie is a nod to the African traditions of gathering in the shade of the “Talking Tree”.

These locations were pivotal meeting spots, where the community exchanged social, political or economic knowledge to one another. With the glass masks, Tayou aims to embody the spirits of ancestors, “watching over and protecting the living”.

The installation beside Arbre de vie also looms with an arboreal presence. Colossal wooden beams dangle with microphones and cables. Together, the two works immediately pit visitors within Tayou’s whimsical world. They also display his use of found objects and materials in blending the natural and consumer world.

Then there is Plastic Bags, an enormous flat installation from which blossom tufts of multicoloured plastic bags, reflecting on the magnitude of human waste.

A large share of Tayou’s works sprout from African traditions. The 2014 work Colorful Calabashes utilises one of the oldest forms of containers. The calabash originated in Africa and was known, besides its utilitarian function, for its decorative aspects. The gourd was regarded as magical and with medicinal properties. Tayou collected the calabashes throughout a series of visits to the B Market in Bafoussam, Cameroon. The calabashes are arranged in an undulating wavelike form that sprawls throughout an exhibition wall.

One material that Tayou makes frequent use of is chalk. He has been incorporating the material into his practice for more than 20 years. There are several works throughout Lobi Lobi that show his unique approach to the material; using it as a final material in and of itself, as opposed to a medium. Red, blue, green and yellow chalk pieces are arranged in undulating patterns in one piece, with a wooden parrot superimposed in the work. In another, white chalk pieces are arranged vertically, with colourful bits arranged almost haphazardly on top.

“I wanted to use something that you always use in expression and art as a sketch,” he says. “I wanted to use chalk as the origin of everything. To make a sketch of a sketch. To make a drawing of inspiration.”

Lobi Lobi is curated by members of the culture sector at DCT – Abu Dhabi, including Maisa Al Qassimi, Noor Al Mehairbi and Reem Al Hashmi. The curators wanted the exhibition to embody the various aspects of Tayou’s practice, from his use of disparate materials to photographic and performance pieces.

“We wanted to show how diverse his practice is,” says Al Qassimi, who leads Guggenheim Abu Dhabi as acting project director on behalf of DCT – Abu Dhabi, alongside Stephanie Rosenthal, appointed project director by the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation. “Pascale always references humans and people, and I think it shows throughout the exhibition how they are the centre of his practice,” Al Qassimi adds.

“This combination of materiality, nature and the body, these are the things we wanted to focus on in his practice,” Al Mehairbi says. “It was also important to showcase Pascale as an activist and performance artist. He looks at the relationship between humans and their environment. It’s almost like an ecological relationship. Through that, you also see the hierarchies of humanity in terms of our consumer environment and our postcolonial environment.”

These are aspects of history that are often difficult to confront, the curators say. Yet, Tayou’s approach reveals the complexity and contradictions of these topics in a manner that is lighthearted and visually captivating.

“You see sustainability, marginalisation and territory reflected in his works but in a very playful way,” Al Qassimi says. “The show is also important for audiences here because the Cultural Foundation is used to showing two-dimensional exhibitions, [featuring] paintings. This exhibition really shows that art can be anything. It can be a dance, found materials, cables, and glass.”

Lobi Lobi has been in the making for three years, Al Qassimi explains. When Tayou first visited the space at the Cultural Foundation, he was interested in its history and architecture, but also the children’s library. This interest was a springboard to Bobo Land.

“This exhibition was very closely developed with Pascale,” Al Qassimi says. “You have original artworks in the exhibition as well as prototypes for children to interact with.”

Much like Lobi Lobi, Bobo Land invites its younger audience to think about the interconnectivity of the past, present and future while inspiring the imagination. The exhibition’s protagonist is Bobo, a boy with dreams of travelling to the moon. Textile snakes, carpets referencing Tayou’s use of chalk, wearable masks and touchscreens guide children along Bobo’s adventure, while inviting children to reflect on who they are and who they want to be.

“Pascale is an artist that has been in Abu Dhabi for many years,” Al Qassimi says. “He was represented in the art fair. He’s done commissions here. People in the UAE have collected [his works] in depth, including the museums. I think the space [at the Cultural Foundation] also invites someone like Pascale to have fun with it.”

Both Lobi Lobi and Bobo Land will be running at the Cultural Foundation until November 26. More information on the exhibitions can be found at culturalfoundation.ae.