A scene with a pair of smoking young people

Didier A. Ahadsi, born 23.May, living in Lomé, Togo.
A scene with a pair of smoking young people, a businessman and a salesman sharing a few joints in their typical attire, the one with a tie next to the jaunty Rastafarian in a shirt with traditional colors and accessories such as a briefcase and backpack and matches belong to this scene. The artist's way of depicting his objects in great detail speaks for the humor in his perception of everyday events. He arranges the scenes on a metal plate, everything made of metal, welded and painted, and thus stands in a tradition of artistic African metalworking.

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).

Lit.: Togo Direkt, Didier Ahadsi aus der Sammlung Karl-Heinz Krieg, Völkerkundesammlung der Hansestadt Lübeck, 2007

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, 2015: Africa’s Top Models, Markk Museum, Hamburg (former Völkerkundemuseum Hamburg), Sammelausstellung.

Collections: Hannover Gallery, Indigo Gallery, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Wolfgang Jaenicke Gallery

Wolfgang Jaenicke, youtube: Didier Ahadji 15 09 2021 Wikipedia, Biographie und Werk.

Height: 38 cm
Width: 17 cm
Length: 33 cm
Weight: 2,3 kg