FIAC Paris Sector Lafayette Solo presentation with Chert, Berlin 21 – 25 October 2015
Chert participated in the 2015 Lafayette – FIAC with a presentation of new works by Zora Mann. The show, titled Cosmophagy, comprises of a curtain barring the entrance of the stand, which conceals 3 colorful paintings.
Following a project initiated by Marine conservationist Julie Church in the nineties, Mann made the curtain out of recycled flip-flops that were found littered on the beaches and waterways of Kenya. The immense quantity and variety of flip-flops are collected, cleaned and cut into small round bits, which are then strung together to form a mosaic like drawing. These patterns follow her characteristics style of intuitive patterns, subconscious dream-like imagery and ornamental elegance; all of her works carry references to her personal journey through many different places and cultures.
Mann’s work exists in the peripherals of craft-art and contemporary Western art, where ‘decoration’ is mainly considered non-art. Her point of view speaks on a major cultural difference: what is for Western people meaningless ornamental creation, for non-Western cultures is full of references, spirit, implications and allusions.