Mame Diarra Niang

Listings(s)

'At The Wall'

STEVENSON is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by French-Ivorian-Senegalese photographer Mame-Diarra Niang, her first at the gallery.

'At The Wall' was realised while driving in a taxi through Dakar. The artist did not stop to take the photographs; as such, the images suggest a sense of constant movement. In her views, there is an unexpected silence and spaciousness in a city known for its bustle; she sees it emptied, a series of walls and buildings with a barely discernible human presence. Her images are abstracted to the point that they are unrecognizable as Dakar; the fabric of the city is paradoxically not the subject of the series. Niang has an acute sensibility for the balance of forms; her eye is attuned to the many possibilities of creating illusions. Framing a terrace through an angled perspective or playing with the optical perception of a building, she turns the city's architecture into a language to express her personal concerns.

The artist's complex relationship with a place that is deeply part of her history and yet does not offer her a sense of home is palpable; she seems to move in a void, following the same wall through the city, as if looking for a thread, a sign, an encounter, and maybe a connection. One could say that the subject of the series is the search, the pilgrimage to gain answers on the future and the past alike. The encounter with the wall offers a surface where her desires and fears are projected. As in any encounter with a reflective experience, the answer ultimately lies with the pilgrim.

18 September 2014 - 31 October 2014