Initié Artwork

In Africa, the passage from adolescence to adulthood is often marked by an initiation ritual. For a young person, going through this stage can seem like facing a major obstacle to elevation. Red is used here with its ambivalent meaning to evoke thesis and antithesis (calm/chaos, life/death, guilt and innocence, etc.). This choice of color also evokes the color of blood and the courage that unites all peoples in the struggle for freedom. The separation between heaven and earth is represented here by a horizontal line. The work also addresses the power of firearms among young people in North America and Africa.