Goodman Gallery is pleased to present Vanille Bleue, Paul Maheke’s first solo presentation on the African continent and debut exhibition with the gallery.
Vanille Bleue is a new body of work by Maheke, drawing on journal entries made since July 2020 during lockdown in Paris. Part diary, part non fiction, Maheke’s journal is brought into the exhibition to drive the artist’s reflections on vulnerability through drawing, text and sound. In particular, Maheke’s use of drawing in the exhibition represents a continued shift in the artist’s practice beyond primarily performance-based work.
The title of the exhibition refers to a type of vanilla indigenous to L’Île de la Reunion, once home to Maheke’s parents. Similar to the works on display, the exhibition’s title offers viewers a context both poetic and political in nature. Maheke cites writers such as Audre Lorde and Édouard Glissant for their use of poetry to “play on one of the most oppressive structures we have - language.” Similarly, by incorporating text into the exhibition Maheke offers an additional voice for his works to communicate various meanings.
These forces comprise everything from the political and social understanding of our history, to more mystical and spiritual understandings, as well as the sonic and physical forces such as gravity that surround us.
Beyond words, the materials used in the show are critical to conveying these ideas. Copper plates, for instance, serve as the surface for a series of colourful images formed through an oxidation process involving liver of sulphur. The unique properties of the copper, which allow for the work’s image to form, extend to its therapeutic qualities used in alter- native medicine as well as its ability to conduct electricity and heat. Light and sound are critical too in exploring ideas central to Maheke’s work.
Similar to the presence of copper, deep bass frequencies played throughout the exhibition hold healing potential. Given the ability of sound frequencies to change the molecular structure of water, it is possible for that to extend to our bodies which are made up of 85% water.
For Maheke, the embodied quality of both the sound and text component speaks to themes of trauma and in turn healing.
“The idea of conveying a narrative around violence and an act of violence over another body, knowing that those audiences will come to the space with a certain set of histories that are personal to them as well as their own cultural references, I think I’m interested in how sound can also bring an element of communication through an interaction with other bodies. [It’s] something interesting in the context of Covid, as well as my own context producing this show from a distance. It’s my way of reaching out to establish a form of touch, in a way.”
Artworks
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Artist Bio
Paul Maheke (b.1985, Brive-la-Gaillarde, France) lives and works in Montpellier. Across various forms and artistic disciplines, Maheke has sustained a long-term exploration into the ways that marginalised bodies, narratives and histories are made visible and invisible. Resisting a probing of identity that sits solely within the framework of identity politics, Maheke’s trajectory has continuously been channelled through spectral sensations. The artist has called in ghosts, spirits and non-human beings into his works to invite a re-orientation to the way that we, the audience, are able to perceive; which is to say, to reframe the way that we are able to see, feel and listen.
In reconfiguring the sensible, Maheke seeks to shift the dominant systems of discourse production and understanding that heavily depend on representation, visibility and legibility as the ultimate forms of truth, value and/or power. Instead, the artist nurtures the formation of a self through a state of in-betweenness; one where esoteric, spiritual, queer and embodied knowledge(s) help Maheke garner the potential for prophecy.
His work has been shown in solo presentations at Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales (2024); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2023); High Line Art, New York (2022), The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois (2021); Collection Pinault, Paris, France (2021); Chisenhale Gallery, London, England (2019); Vleeshal Centre for Contemporary Art, Middelburg, Netherlands (2018); and South London Art Gallery, London, England (2016). He has participated in group exhibitions and festivals at institutions including Tate Modern, England (2024); Rudolfinum, Prague (2023); ICA Miami, Florida (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2018); and Serpentine Galleries, London, England (2016). He has been featured in major international exhibitions including Biennale du Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (2022); Glasgow International, Scotland (2021); 58th Venice Biennale, Italy (2019); Performa, New York (2019); Baltic Triennial 13, Estonia (2018); and Manifesta 12, Palermo, Italy (2018).
