PORTFOLIO # 29

M’BAREK BOUCHICHI – IMPLICIT PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE.

By Nii B. Andrews

M’barek Bouchichi takes up the challenge of crafting a fluent visual language to atone for erasures and absences or neglect/indifference/forgetting.

His work attempts through patient and accurate observation to repair breaks in the transmission of knowledge, traditions and culture.

Needless to state, this situation leads to difficulties with identity, grounding and perspective; it often leads to marginalization.

The aesthetic of the Moroccan south tends towards minimalism – or if you prefer, earthy imagery that contrasts with the more northern Arabo- Andalusian format.

Perhaps a useful analogy here is the minimalism of Ga political art versus the profusion of the Asante or Akan form.

By employing stark and austere images, Bouchichi is able to reference the agrarian, metallurgical and poetic skills of his southern lineage group.

If the iconography reminds you of masks from the Sahelian region, then you are on cue.

Thus in a discreet but emphatic way, he is able to paint for all of us an implicit portrait of a somewhat less than well-known/studied group of people….again the Ga-Adangbe/Akan analogy is relevant.

Bouchichi’s triumph is that he is successful in providing resilient form to a fading story; he is able to create a singularity out of a largely over narrated and predetermined space; he is able to provide a viable model for liberation, integration, regeneration and progress.

What he strives to achieve is to etch memory onto matter and thereby make the former tangible and real.

Ultimately, Bouchichi in his art proclaims the possibility of the redemption of matter – a lofty and provocative idea that is indeed, not wholly unrealistic.