Romuald Hazoumè | October 7 – November 26 | 2016

August 2, 2016

Internationally acclaimed artist Romuald Hazoumè (b. 1962) will present an ambitious new exhibition on the theme of immigration at October Gallery during October and November 2016. This will be the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at the London based gallery and will consist of three major installations, paintings, photography and masks. Hazoumè’s works are humorous and wryly political. His assemblages are specifically tied to his vision of society and his take on global problems. Hazoumè’s timely exhibition, which will feature a five-metre long crashed boat and a dice made of thousands of found flip-flops, addresses the movement of people across the world and reflects upon the dramatic narratives created by migrants forced by war or famine from their home country.

Hazoumè’s installation, Tricky Dicey Dice (2016), presents the stark realities of choosing to attempt the crossing, at the mercy of callous human traffickers whose decrepit vessels are in ever-diminishing supply. The dice in question, a truncated cube, is loaded against any successful outcome. The numbers on each of the usual faces are replaced by the outlined shape of a dead child, hauntingly reminiscent of the image of Alyan Kurdi. The cut-off corners of the cube provide eight new, triangular surfaces, which represent ‘success.’ Mathematically speaking, there is a 25% greater probability (8:6) of escaping alive once the dice is rolled, but in reality the shape of the dice is such that the chances of it balancing on one of the small triangular surfaces is far less likely than that the hexahedron’s weight will ensure it finally comes to rest with a child’s silhouette on top. The dice is covered with recuperated sandals, found washed ashore on the beaches of Benin, so that each sandal sole stands in place of a lost human soul.