Sarah Honoré has made the Imaaya Gallery not only the backdrop for her song “Nu lakaz”, but also a venue for musical and choreographic performancess—as was the case on the opening night—for gatherings, workshops, and discussions, and even a hand-poke tattoo studio hand-poked, a discipline she has been practicing for five years. But let’s take a closer look at the exhibition on view through July 25 at Imaaya. Dominique Bellier
Nepli nu lakaz, the first solo performance by multidisciplinary artist Sarah Honoré, envisions a post-apocalyptic scenario with a central thesis, in which humans, for example, would have had nothing left to cling to but religions and superstitions… At least, those are the only traces that remain for us. The house is still there, but its inhabitants—the humans—have vanished. All that remains of them are their clothes, frozen in a posture of prostration, as if their bodies had been vaporized in the midst of prayer.
Although she is, on the face of it, an atheist, Sarah is nonetheless interested in spirituality and the voids it can fill, as well as the anxieties it can soothe. Here, she creates her own little personal cosmogony, as a way to ward off the death of humanity. The gallery has become a temple, a ritual space dedicated to the arts and capable of reinventing the imagination—and, why not, the world to come.
Large vertical tapestries, in the colors of the sky and the earth, adorn all the walls and feature the key lyrics of the song that inspired them.
Natural materials—stones, earth, dried plants, wood, and bark—are key elements of this animistic installation. The columns become totems surrounded by sacred objects and fetishes, candles, and offerings. Sarah has created her own symbolism through small talismans and invented mythical characters such as Anooradha, Samiel, and Eliana… In this spellbinding exhibition, bags of rice take on living forms, evoking a time when these grains were the staple of the diet.
For more information, visit www.imaaya.com
Kalito, Guardian of Laprier
Round bark fetish
Last night
Candles and Talismans on Earth
Dried coconut (close-up)
Andann, Guardian Laprier
