Issue 38: Les combattants | Featured Artist Ousmane Bâ
"I create dreamlike spaces in which I liberate racialized bodies from societal prejudice, from physical gravity..."
Welcome to KHÔRA, a dynamic online arts space produced in collaboration with Lidia Yuknavitch’s Corporeal Writing. Visit our Archive to read previous issues. Scroll down if you’d like your work to be considered for future issues.
Issue 38 is here! We’re back with the stunning work of featured artist Ousmane Bâ, featured writer A.D. Lim, and our curated team of writers and artists: nawa a.h., Mayur Chauhan, Marina Gross-Hoy, Michael Nagle, and Kirk Read. Check out Issue 38 here, and if you missed our previous issues, visit our Archive.
Les combattants by Featured Artist Ousmane Bâ
Ousmane Bâ began his creative journey in his hometown of Strasbourg, where he honed his artistic skills as a self-taught artist through various audiovisual projects in collaboration with local collectives. Today, his practice spans drawing, painting, and collage. His work focuses on the concept of space and explores the ideas of belonging and freedom.
“I CREATE DREAMLIKE SPACES IN WHICH I LIBERATE RACIALIZED BODIES FROM SOCIETAL PREJUDICE, FROM PHYSICAL GRAVITY.”
— OUSMANE BÂBetween 2013 and 2017, the artist refined his aesthetic vision by working as a graphic designer for various French startups. At the same time, he drew inspiration from his travels and encounters to enrich his work. Senegalese, Japanese, and French cultures greatly influence the painter’s creations.
When he decided to move to Japan in 2018, his artistic eye solidified. Through Nihonga, a traditional Japanese painting technique, Ousmane Bâ elevates the human form. Like sculptures in motion, the bodies come to life against a backdrop of washi paper collage. Warm and cold tones intertwine harmoniously, creating characters with diverse stories but a shared sensitivity….
Read Les combattants.
Constantly evolving, Ousmane Bâ is a versatile, chameleon-like artist who navigates between various cultural and geographical influences. He gained public recognition at the Dakar Biennale in 2022, where he exhibited his series of works titled Interweaving Entrelacement at Galerie Atiss. This was followed by numerous exhibitions around the world: in Paris at the AKAA African Art Fair, in Lagos at the prestigious Art x Lagos international art fair, as well as in New York at 1:54, in Geneva, and in South Africa.
Resolutely cosmopolitan, Ousmane Bâ remains deeply inspired by his Fulani roots, a traditionally pastoral people of West Africa. The celestial dimension of his works reflects an elevating intention, a desire to transcend the reality of space and time through art.
“THE CREATION OF EACH SPACE IS A SPIRITUAL ACT THROUGH WHICH I TRY TO TRANSCEND EARTHLY CONDITIONS.” — OUSMANE BÂ
Issue 38 Highlights
Issue 38: Les combattants by Featured Artist Ousmane Bâ
Issue 38: dear Coral Grief by nawa a.h.
Issue 38: the void by Michael Nagle | Artwork by Kirk Read
Issue 38: Festival of Love by Mayur Chauhan
Issue 38: A Bridge is a Place by Marina Gross-Hoy
Issue 38: Everyday Apocalypses by Featured Writer A.B. Lim
Artists and Writers
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Team-based, collaborative, and curated, KHÔRA is a form that is continually opening. We invite you to join us in sustaining it together. We don't believe in rejections. KHÔRA’s 500 Words is about considering how multiple voices can be heard; how frameworks, traditions, and projects can inform each other; and how new perspectives emerge from collaboration and openness. If you are a visual artist or interested in sharing your artwork or images, ready about KHÔRA’s Images here.
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With galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad