Saâdane Afif

Stalactites (Few More Mistakes), Round Bar of Wood (Portrait of Gilbert and George)

In Stalactites (Few More Mistakes), Round Bar of Wood (Portrait of Gilbert and George), Saâdane Afif quotes André Cadere’s round wooden batons using the copy share and remix principles. Cadere’s sculptures, batons constituted with a mathematical chain of painted wood segments containing one error in the succession of colors, can be presented according to any possible configuration (on the wall, floor, hung or not). In the catalogue documenting the project, Power chords, there is a facsimile (another type of quotation) of one of Cadere’s conferences: “Présentation d’un travail, utilisation d’un travail (presentation of a work, use of a work)”.

The batons appear in different works by Afif like tools of an essential vocabulary: with nuances of black (Black Spirit, 2004), of white (Ghost, 2005), translated into sound (Power Chords, 2005) or light (Untitled 1971/2003-B 0230 1004 =30= =22×23=, 2003).

Saâdane Afif questions the generative capacity of error as the title suggests: A few more mistakes. He toys with some of the defining parameters of Cadere’s batons (nuances of grey, presentation as stalactites) in order to disrupt them. The title suggests that the work is in fact a portrait. Gilbert & George are two artists who perform and make photomontages about the concept of a couple. Afif pays homage to them via the minimal index of wooden batons as a reference to the notion of ‘living sculptures’.