jean-françois boclé floods the saatchi gallery in a sea of blue bags

jean-françois boclé floods the saatchi gallery in a sea of blue bags
image © justin piperger, 2015

as a teenager, jean-françois boclé fled his native martinique in exile and now finds his home in france. this experience has fueled much of the artist’s exploration regarding the history of his homeland, and the notion of creolization that has come to define the geographical and intellectual character of the antilles, in the caribbean. in particular, the cross-cultural implications of colonialism which he encountered growing up can be found at the basis of his artistic practice as seen in ‘tout doit disparaître! /everything must go!’ — an installation that is a flood of blue plastic bags, a quasimemorial of the lives which were lost at sea during the transatlantic slave trade. the mass of omnipresent shopping sacs of supermarket checkouts are air inflated, the supply of oxygen animating them, standing to symbolize the priceless commodity that is life.

‘tout doit disparaître! /everything must go!’ is a quasimemorial of those whose lives were lost at sea
image © justin piperger, 2015

‘tout doit disparaître! /everything must go!’ is on show at the saatchi gallery. it is being presented within the exhibition ‘pangaea II: new art from africa and latin america’ which brings forth 18 emerging artists whose creative practices is overcast by the complexities found in their respective homelands. the show witnesses the unprecedented rate at which these two regions of the world are changing, with the pieces on display projecting a range of themes and practices — offering a hybrid of traditional and contemporary techniques and materials, while reflecting on social and political issues faced during our contemporary times of rapid urban and economic expansion.

‘pangaea II: new art from africa and latin america’ runs at the saatchi gallery in london until september 6th, 2015. 

the bags are inflated with oxygen, symbolozing the priceless commodity that is life
image © justin piperger, 2015

    
installation view of ‘tout doit disparaître! /everything must go!’ at the saatchi gallery
image © justin piperger, 2015
 

 
the height of the sea of blue bags
image © justin piperger, 2015