Gor Soudan (Kenyan, born 1983)
Bubbles & Shells 3, 2014
Unsigned – certificate of authenticity
Protest wire
50 x 50 x 45 cm
Ksh 150,000-260,000
US$ 1,700-2,950
Sold Ksh 645,700
Provenance: direct from the artist
Gor Soudan is a conceptual artist living and working in Kisumu and Nairobi. Often subtly engaged with contemporary political and social issues and embedded in urban culture, Soudan’s artistic practice is an organic process through which everyday material is transformed into powerful work. He has worked with pages of the Kenyan constitution, cartons, plastic, shopping bags and ‘protest wire’ – a tangled black mass of wire he salvaged from car tyres burnt during civil unrest in Nairobi brought about by political tension. His practice and the works he produces provide acute, often satirical observations and commentary on the rapid socio-political transformation that Africa is undergoing.
His latest project, Bubbles & Shells, applies linear installation using protest wire, natural materials and drawings to explore the ontological history of enclosed spaces, utopian and practical pods and domes, real and fantastical atmospheres or ecosystems observed during his travels to Freetown and Tokyo this year.
‘Bubbles & Shells 3’ is the third of six sculptures. The first two are in the Backers Foundation Collection at Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan. The work on paper is the third in a series of four, the first was acquired by the Yuan Museum in Tokyo and the second is also in the Backers Foundation Collection.