Original HVW8 member Brian A, aka Sleepy B, is working towards an exhibition based on his recent travels to Benin, Africa. Here are a few words and photos from the artist:
“Much too burned out to pack myself, running on 2 hrs sleep and failing reserves of nervous adrenaline, I made a furious break for the airport in full evening rush-hour traffic; A perfect way to say goodbye to the bustling metropolis of Montreal before my voyage into ‘the birthplace of voodoo’. ‘The doorway to the South’ for the Europeans, certainly the ‘Porte de non-retour’ for the slaves bound from the colonies to the occident, I was heading to the Republic of Benin, on the west coast of Africa.”
Photos and text from a young Canadian’s journey to the Motherland: Discovery, displacement, a whirlwind love affair and an unexpected twist forcing him to confront the wide world outside his home and his place within it. A realization that voodoo is not intangible, it lives in the everyday interactions between people, and in the basic motivation that drives them to do sometimes unimagineable and incomprehensible things.
Look out for an exhibition of Brian’s artwork at the HVW8 Gallery in 2009.