Seneplus presents Yrneh Gabon: The Jamaican who has found his shy Orgins
Jamaican by birth, American by adoption and Senegalese by origin, Yrneh GABON says he is back home, after the deportation of his ancestors, more than 4 centuries ago from Africa to the Americas. He is absolutely swinging. Balance Fundamental.
Source: Seneplus
A multidisciplinary artist born in Jamaica, Yrneh Gabon has been living in the United States for a few years and is gradually getting closer to Africa. Since he discovered Senegal and especially its shallow origins between Casamance, Gambia and Guinea Bissau, thanks to the DNA test, his ties with Africa have been strengthening.
As part of the 14th edition of Dak'Art, Yrneh GABON set up a complex installation around salt and in particular the Pink Lake that he discovered a few years ago. He invites visitors to a salty conversation around the mythical Lac Rose as he explains in this interview with AfricaGlobe Tv (See video)
The artist has, in fact, reconstituted a kind of seaside with a loaded canoe, bags of salt, salt in all its forms in all its expressions. It is a complete installation that includes parts of the history of slavery, colonization, photography, video projection. Yrneh Gabon intends to get people to understand the Lake Rose community on political, social, ecological and cultural aspects because Lake Rose is in danger. The Pink Lake that he saw 5 years earlier is no longer the same as today's. But the Pink Lake is not only the lake that we will admire and leave. It is a community that lives, works and has its identity.
Based in Los Angeles, the artist, doubled as an activist and specialized in mixed media and performance, works to "balance and cross artistic representation and activism and social commentary", in this case on the issues concerning Africa and its diaspora".
Holder of a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of South Carolina (USA) and a master's degree in Fine Arts from the Otis College of Arts and Design, Yrneh Gabon is an all-in-round artist who has a sense of humor and who does not hesitate to engage in a warm conversation with those who visit his installation. Since he discovered the land of his ancestors, he is getting closer and closer. He wants to use his artistic knowledge to carry the voices of disadvantaged communities.
"I want to use my fine arts practice to re-educate and address inequalities within disadvantaged communities and to build a narrative that connects us as a people faced with social, ecological and political climate change, today and in the foreseeable future," he said on his official website consulted by AfricaGlobe.