Tribal Bonfire

Constrained and semi constrained Lichtenberg figures on scavenged and upcycled plywood with textile dyes and mica-pigmented epoxy. Commissioned by and presented at We-Art Gallery at the 2025 June - October exhibition "Choreography of Color" - a title I am surely one of the few to find terrifying. But color and dance are about decision and presence in the moment - My two main fears. The piece portrays my experience from the fourth grade, when one day, social games turned into dancing, with no rules and no winners. Time and again, I was left on the sidelines, until my forties. The more people tried to help, the more I crashed against the walls of expectation and failure. Under African skies, which represent the birthplace of humanity to me, and from a voyeuristic, foreign perspective, I painted seven figures, one of them hidden; Under stars, sunset, and daylight, to extend the present in the dimension of time - maybe given enough time, I’ll find compassion for that child I was, whom I am, who is still crying on the sidelines - well, for now, at least. To grow from him and from wins and losses, and just be. During the exhibition, an encounter of Ecstatic Dancing took place, and the gallery owner invited me, so before i could work up the fear, i took the train and participated. It was one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life, but there was a moment when, alongside the fear, I felt the dance inside me, from within. Not as a riddle to solve or a mask to hide fear, but as an appetite. Just for a few moments. Did I solve the whole problem like in a Hollywood movie? No. But it is a precedent, and I will hop on the next opportunity, too.