Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba

(Ivorian, born 1983)

Untitled

Footnotes

Aboudia became the focus of international attention as a result of his depictions of violence in his home city of Abidjan. Civil war broke out in 2002, when rebel soldiers seized control of the Muslim-majority north. Violence escalated in the aftermath of the 2011 parliamentary elections when Laurent Gbagbo disputed the victory of his opponent Alassane Ouattara. Thousands of civilians were killed and injured, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

A mural painter and street artist, Aboudia trained at the art college in Bingerville. During the 2011 crisis, Aboudia took refuge in his basement studio where he documented the surrounding violence on large scale canvases that channeled the brutal energy and horrors that were happening above ground. Soldiers with haunted, skull-like faces people these works.

The artist has been compared to both Goya and Basquiat for his ability to fuse despair and anger with vigorous energy. Aboudia himself has commented that he uses "colour to transform sadness into happiness". The conflict was the central theme of Aboudia's first solo show with Jack Bell Gallery in London, entitled War Series (2011). Four paintings from this exhibition are now in the permanent collection of the Saatchi Gallery.

However, Aboudia rejects being categorized as a 'war artist'. He likens his work to 'Nouchi', the street-slang of Ivorian youths. Like nouchi, Aboudia's art started on the street, with "anything I could get my hands on". His visual language similarly expresses the struggle of living on the margins of society.

The street art of these youths, created with crayons, sand and rocks, express their fears, yearnings and aspirations. Aboudia claims that his work, although now considered 'high art', is rooted in this defiant, populist tradition. In adopting their language, the artist offers us a window into these youths' lives, forcing us to acknowledge their suffering. Aboudia's preoccupation with the condition of his fellow Ivorians is similar to the well-known activist Ai Weiwei, to whom he dedicated the 2014 work, 'Homage to Ai Weiwei'.

Since 2011, Aboudia has enjoyed international recognition and success, participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions. At the invitation of the Goethe Institute he attended a conference on the role of art during wartime in South Africa. In 2012, among other Ivorian artists, Aboudia participated in an Abidjan exhibition on the sidelines of the biennale "DAKART" in Senegal.