A Mechanic with a Fridge, Tools, and Gas Bottle

Didier Ahadsi, born 1970 , near Lomé, Togo,

"A Mechanic with a Fridge, Tools, and Gas Bottle"*, by Didier A. Ahadsi. An African fitter on a gray pedestal carries a refrigerator on his head and holds it in his right hand. In his left he holds a blue gas bottle and a tool bag slung over his shoulder. (*The title is meant to be descriptive and not by the artist).

The artist comes from a large Ewe family and grew up with three half brothers and four half sisters in Vogan, near Lomé. His environment was shaped by agriculture, and his parents also worked in this field. The town of his birth, Vogan, is also shaped by the Vodoon cult, which - next to the Christian religion - is still very important today.
Ahadsi learned the trade of coachbuilder until he opened his own workshop;
Through the knowledge and skills of sheet metal and metalworking at a highly professional level, which he was able to develop and acquire autodidactically during his long training period, and his fondness for making tin figures since childhood, he began using durable and high-quality materials such as body panels to implement his figures, especially since the special tools required for this were now available to him for the first time.
Very soon the demand for his metal figures increased, sometimes figures ordered with intended ritual purposes. Ahadsi's art thus certainly keeps one of its roots in traditional African art (traditional art related to religious purpose, some of these works are therefore, after being transferred to the cult, authentic originals of classical African art according to European understanding).

Wolfgang Jaenicke, youtube: Didier Ahadji 15 09 2021.

Ausstellungen (Auswahl):

Togo direkt. Didier A. Ahadsi – Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Afrika 
Zeughaus Völkerkundesammlung, Lübeck, Deutschland 2007

La Vie d'Afrique aujourd'hui (Life in Africa Today), an exhibition by Didier Ahadsi, ELTTOB TEP, Tokyo, Japan 2011.
                     
Afrikas Moderne im Spiegel der Generationen / Haus der Völker, Schwaz, Tirol, Österreich 2011 / 2012.

The Guardian world/gallery/2014/nov/17/-sp-african-artists-in-pictures

Wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Ahadsi

Height: 49 cm
Weight: 2 kg