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1/10/2004

Untitled: Mohamed Camara

Tate Modern, London

Tate Modern's Untitled project is a series of exhibitions of recent contemporary art that explore the relationship between private and public space. The third in the series is devoted to the photographic works of Malian artist Mohamed Camara. This is not only Camara's first exhibition in Britain but his first in a public gallery. It comprises 43 works from his first series, Chambres Maliennes (Malian Rooms), as well as 20 new photographs and a video, which have been especially made for the show.

Most of Camara's images show interiors of houses in Bamako, Mali's capital. In 2001, he was given a camera and began to take digital pictures, which often feature the artist himself, or his friends and family. These intimate scenes are infused with their own quiet temporality, ruled by daily activities such as housework, cookery or taking a nap. The external world is reduced to glimpses through open windows or doorways, veiled by curtains of gauzy cloth.

The work is very different from the documentary shots of war and poverty, or images of Africa as exotic tourist destination, that commonly represent the continent to viewers in the West. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, but these scenes do not speak of destitution. The simplicity of the houses is part of a cultural aesthetic that emphasises the circulation of light and air. There are few perceptible adornments, only a vase of flowers, sections of wall stained a rich cerulean blue, and bolts of billowing, coloured fabric. References to modern lifestyles are present, but not explicit. A football shirt hanging at a window, or a pair of Puma trainers, hint at the dreams and aspirations of a youthful generation.

Image:
Mohamed Camara
Chambre Malienne No 37
2001-2002
Digital print on paper
© The artist, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Pierre Brullé, Paris


Tate Modern
Untitled gallery, Level 2
Bankside, London
Admission free

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