fractals (sense of order)

For Moussa Kone the art of drawing with pen and ink is very closely related to the occupation of writing. Today’s word "text" has its roots in the Latin verb "texere" and originally meant "to weave". A text thus is a structure of lines, like textiles are woven out of threads. It is this kind of weaving single lines into dense textures, to what the artists refers to as “contextualizing”. The artist quotes art historic “externalized patterns” as a repetitive background and boundary for the otherwise blank and empty images of himself. Using the detailed patterns and the high amount of labor involved in their execution, they are also a metaphor of time. The drawings are created and reshaped in the constant interaction between the figures and their surroundings. They show kind mental maps and express the process of differentiation of the self, with conscious and unconscious moments.

There’s a smaller series within this series, entitled and numbered talk1 to talk8. It is focused on the hands and arms gestures of two persons. Often these two persons are facing each other and are engaged in a social interaction. The background of the image is a very detailed and colorful pattern, which emphasizes the boundaries between the individuals and functions “like a geographical map” (Kone).

Other drawings, like pan/nap or press/barbell, quote historical patterns from the Wiener Werkstätte artisan movement. Moussa Kone used them to show himself as an artist living and working in Vienna and how he is dealing with the specific cultural and artistic heritage in this setting. Some works make use of archetypal phenomena and individuation theories, quoting Yorùbá deities and their symbolism.