Kossi Homawoo

THE SENSELESS LIGHT BEFORE THE STORM

That's how it is, that's life. Sometimes the light doesn't fall the right way. Inside the house, we stumble against objects, we bump into the walls. Kossi Homawoo knows something about it. In 2006, he made beautiful lights, filled with light, furniture that invites quiet rest. "And then things weren't right. That's when I started painting He will say it later, " it felt like freedom" A dark freedom, of black acrylic and octopus ink, because it had to be said and the color would come back afterwards ».

Drawing, I had it in me since I was little, but I didn't dare. In 2006, I will dare.

Kossi Homawoo lives in the Toulouse region which is not a dark region, and even it is quite the opposite. His studio is in the attic, quite close to the light, which he has always made his work friend. This is how he works with his lamps and light paintings, since he is also a designer.

Je n’ai jamais vu une différence profonde entre ces deux métiers. Il s’agit de sortir quelque chose, non ? Mais il y a quand même quelque chose. Quand tu entres dans une pièce, l’objet que tu as conçu met de la beauté. Une lampe, tu l’allumes, et c’est beau. Avec la peinture, je n’avais pas besoin de faire quelque chose de beau. Je peux laisser venir les choses, telles qu’elles sont. La peinture, ça m’a appris à être libre. "

The freedom to say it's not okay, and when things work out to paint faces filled with extreme emotions. The influence of Fauvism is almost permanent. Often, Kossi refers to the portraits of Van Dongen, to this sublime bourgeois of Matisse, under a purple hat, anarchist painting, looks of desire, of anger...

 " the idea of the workshop, he explains, bothered me. Being dependent on one place did not suit me. I discovered at that time that I could use a phone, with an application and a pen for the screen. I call it "LG501". I may have made over ten thousand drawings like this. In the evenings, I isolated myself and I drew. " He does the same today. Sketches, where color already takes its place, where movement comes to him with tremendous ease... and which he will then reproduce on paper...or plexi "It's silly, but I've always dreamed of drawing, and there I could, and I caught up some of the time."

In his latest works, Kossi continues to explore these often dramatic faces that he sees and imagines, like Frida Kahlo who continues to accompany him, or Aldebayde, who has come to join him. The red is still there, in this passionate constancy, and a woman seated on a sofa. On his gaze, the canvas is concentrated. Eyesx hemmed in black, which speak of weariness, perhaps boredom and certainly great loneliness

 Kossi associates with a rather staggering mastery the Western characters and the silent, almost mystical violence of certain ritual masks. It's a crossroads, Frida Kahlo came to Africa, to share the senseless light that precedes the storm.