BEHIND THE WHEEL - [July - 2022]

Indulged in color and contrast, Bakri expresses the complexity of life in Sudan and the multitudes of confusion faced by the common street person as they navigate through life. The context of which Abubakr’s topics are drawn is the spiral downfalls economically and politically which Sudan has gone through in such a short period of time. In the collection, Bakri is inviting us to discuss the mental aspect of the individual as they experience such drastic changes in the quality of their lives. The paintings are the artist’s visual interpretation of the state of internal denial, loss, and perplexity which individuals are going through due to the disparity between what is daily apparent and the falling value of their efforts. 

Throughout his artistic practice, Abubakr Moaz has continuously discussed the topic of the quest and purpose of life. He believes it is one that is tightly linked to identity and unification. 

Bakri's work is part of a double filiation with the current Sudanese scene. On the one hand, his work represents Sudanese diversity, so dear to many Sudanese artists who have made it their artistic motif. On the other hand, it is also in line with the continuity of other artists, on the issue of colors and in particular the contrast and the way in which this concept can materialize physically, or rather stylistically.

Whether through colors, lights or composition, contrast is one of the keys to reading Bakri's work. But the works in this exhibition go further and also explore the contrasts that run through human beings in their daily lives. In particular, he addresses a concept that structures our modern capitalist societies and seems to be increasingly becoming a component of our times: the working poor. Thus, in the face of all the economic theories advocating work as a source of wealth, reality increasingly illustrates that working is not a guarantee of economic success. In a country where inflation is rampant, where the local currency is devaluing against foreign currencies and where salaries are not keeping up with the mad rush to the top, Bakri questions the future of these workers who, day after day, task after task, see their purchasing power melt away without having the slightest control over their future.

Thus, where the majority of artists ask the question of Sudanese identity (this identity balanced between the Arab and African worlds), celebrate the diversity of the country or carry the hope of a new Sudan, Bakri tries to go further by drawing up a report, certainly terribly bitter, but very realistic, of the difficulties of daily life that so many Sudanese encounter in the face of the uncertainty that the country is currently experiencing. Moreover, his work is in radical contrast to much of the current art scene, as it does not celebrate the Sudan of the peripheries, rural areas and traditions, but rather questions the future of the inhabitants of the Sudanese city par excellence, Khartoum. Capital of a hyper-centralised country, over the decades, wars, disasters and migrations, Khartoum has become the agglomerate of all the fringes of Sudan, to the point of forming its own identity, that of a giant city, home to millions of people, each dragging its own hopes and disillusions. 

It is the situation and the future of these people, these daily workers, employees, street vendors, tea ladies, that Bakri questions. Caught up in a daily routine, they strive to reproduce the same pattern every day for a result that is less and less sufficient, often barely covering the daily expenses. The question then arises as to why they should continue to persist in a situation that no longer pays. The answer may lie in habits that lead people to repeat the same behavior, or in an attachment to their profession, or in the fact that despite everything their job allows them to live, or rather to survive. But for the artist the answer is different. According to him, these people are caught in a kind of mirage, where yesterday's reality and today's reality are intertwined. The illusion produced by the mirage operates as a force that pushes people to repeat the same gestures day after day despite the awareness that the world around them has changed. They find themselves sucked into an inflationary spiral of repeated crises with no alternative. The characters in the artist's paintings are physically sucked into the mirage around them. By working on the movement and the contrast between the central figures and the rest of the canvas, Bakri manages to give the impression that the very real characters he paints are about to be absorbed into a vortex of abstraction, a very realistic image of the whirlwind that is passing through the country.

Between the vague and the clear... between that which is known and that which is in the womb of the unseen... we build our hopes on the basis of our conviction to achieve them, relying on the pillars of determination and hope... reality becomes more blurred and the darkness may increase... and the vision gradually fades away. It could be orderly or unbalanced...