Flowers for the Soul
Aàdesokan

Affected by the suicide of a close friend while away for introspection on a hillside, artist Aàdesokan began to paint flowers on memory plates. Through this repetitive performative process, Aàdesokan tried over several months to organize his chaotic thoughts and to channel his suffering, but also to stay in dialogue with a lost soul friend. The creative act thus lets him create a “fantasized” conviviality around life and mortality, evoked by the plates. Each painted plate was then placed on a shawl belonging to his mother – symbolizing the comforting maternal figure and fertility – and was then photographed frontally. This installation presents for the first time Aàdesokan’s photographic series, a bouquet of flowers which will wither during the course of the exhibition and a soundtrack in which the artist reads a letter to his friend. Through his work, the artist interrogates the essence of life and questions the practice of photography as a means of struggling against death.