"In the process of assembling Stilthouses and Bidonvilles I fully surrender to my own imagination astonished by how unorthodox houses can be built, discovering a smile on my face trying to capture these anomalous constructions." Arne Quinze
While making his installations, Arne Quinze is inspired by how cities are formed and civilizations are organised. His exhibition ‘Africa Electronica’ at Phillips de Pury & Company, London, presents adaptations of Stilthouses and Bidonvilles, as well as new Lakeviews and African masks.
Quinze employs basic shapes and textures in a manner similar to African art. Primordial purity, simplicity and earthy textures define both of these elements of artistic expression.The lively spirit of Africa is reflected in his way of sculpting and painting to create pure and basic forms. His technique immediately draws the viewer’s attention towards his sculptures, sketches and paintings.
Quinze is an obsessive collector of used materials. He gives their lines new life in the realisation of his vision. In editing what he has found, he redefines their layers and textures. He aspires to improve upon the original imperfections in his quest to create the perfect line, all the while knowing that this line might not exist.
Quinze uses ‘electric’ colours, like fluorescent orange and red, which are distinct from traditional African art, and together with his use of contrasting white and black, together they generate a charged environment. The brightness of ‘Africa Electronica’ may be read as an antidote to the large percentage of African homes without electricity. The use of synthetic fluorescent paint on top of re-used material contrasts with the organic quality that underlies his work. Moreover, his incorporation of electronic video screens emphasises this contrast and brings together disparate time zones with moving images, rhythms and dimensions.
This way of working is a manifestation of how Quinze perceives art and how he has been inspired by African culture. While visiting the continent, Quinze was moved by the intense expressiveness some tribes effect in shaping wooden masks and ornamenting their faces with extensive jewellery, paint or clay.
In several tribes, a carving of the face is a way to express oneself, a way to leave architectural lines on the body; at a certain point, the line between the human face and mask becomes indistinguishable. Quinze’s research on this theme resulted in his making of contemporary African masks adorned with abstract lines and rhythms. An identical exercise is conducted in his formation of Lakeviews which depict massively scaled, glistening bodies of water. Every observation is captured in a rhythm, a balance or imbalance; lines meander through his head and into his artwork to create a structure that differs from what one might detect in a landscape.The multitude of materials engenders a particular texture and three- dimensionality.The use of each new material produces a new line, creating a new layer and a new expression.
The African continent compelled Quinze to surrender to its energy. Being in such an environment, Quinze instantly detected rhythms and structures in urban life different from those to which he was accustomed. In adapting these to his Bidonvilles and Stilthouses, he gives them an identity in his own society.
The linking of differing societies abides by Quinze’s belief that all individuals are equal. Cultural and economic differences between us do not alter this equality nor lessen our basic sameness. Quinze’s constructions are both favella and skyscraper, shanty town and industrialised tower. Different cultures are manifested as different lines and rhythms in his work, yet are unified within the same structure, reflecting our daily lives above and around each other. Stilthouses and Bidonvilles seem to incorporate the same shapes and have a similar construction yet after a closer look they are marked with differing details according to the culture, continent or city in which they are built. Stilthouses and Bidonvilles are archetypal houses that serve as an analysis of how societies are shaped today.
