Three Corner Stones

Chris Bramble, Papa Essel, Emmanuel Okoro
10 March 2006 to 14 April 2006

As the first group exhibition gathering Chris Bramble, Papa Essel and Emmanuel Okoro, Three Corner Stones built on countless millennia of storytelling traditions: using ceramics, sculpture and painting as primary means of transmitting their experiences, the three artists use narration as a way of making sense of the world. Proposing three reinvented founding myths, they invite the audience to dive into their multifaceted conception of our times, in which the Natural, the Spiritual and the Political are the three corner stones.

Inspired by Rodin and Zimbabwean sculpture, Chris Bramble’s ceramics are powerful depictions of the gamut of human experiences and the natural world around them. The material alone, the delicate balance and the use of masterful lines inherited from Shona sculpture invite exploration, both visually and mentally. Using a universal and contemporary language, Chris Bramble’s ceramics tell the story of today’s people and their way to initiation into full humanness.

In his vibrant and colorful paintings, Papa Essel links traditional Ghanaian art to a post-modern discourse, reflecting his interest in depicting historical, social and cross-cultural current affairs – in particular the bitter-sweet relationship between Africa and the West. Inspired by the notion of “word as image”, Papa Essel combines text with figurative images in his carefully balanced compositions, and tells, through the narrative of gold mining, the cynical socio-political story on which modern societies are built.

Displaying both a continuation from his Nigerian culture of origin, and that of outside influences, Emmanuel Okoro’s works evoke a natural organic rawness. Playing with the textures of clay, plaster, steel and bronze as modelling materials, Okoro has built on the notion of movement and form within his space to convey the mysterious atmosphere surrounding the founding myths of today’s cultures: his seductive figures seem to have arisen from the past, the mood of a piece changes as a face is drawn. Poetry in sculpture, Emmanuel Okoro’s works tell the story of our roots of belonging.