CelineSianiDjiakoua

 

In 2020-2021, with the project "The Untouched Collection" ,   I was researching a 19 th century collection of travelling books to collect illustrations of African nature and explore issues of de/colonisation. In winter 2021, as I visited Valencia's botanic gardens, it became obvious to me that botanic gardens would be my next research axis.  Today, I wanted to have a better idea of when and how these gardens appeared and as they are directly linked to colonial empires, I wanted to visualise the geographical developement of these empires through time.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_empire#European_colonial_empires

 To the one who lives so deeply that nothing can make her tremble. No wind can uproot her. No earthquake can make her fall. Deep. I need your strength. A celle qui vit si profondément que rien ne peut la faire trembler. Aucun vent ne peut la déraciner. Aucun tremblement de terre ne peut la faire tomber.  Profonde. J'ai besoin de ta force. Cut out paper - papier découpé

 Post following "The circle of my heart" / Poste suivant "Le cercle de mon coeur." Making one with the ground, the dark brown soil.                                                                                                                                   F aire un avec le sol, le sol brun foncé. Spring has arrived, the fields are ploughed, the surface of the ground opened for plants to soon grow. Le printemps est arrivé, les champs sont labourés, la surface du sol ouverte pour que les plantes y poussent bientôt. Monoprint and ink made from clay on paper - Monotype et encre faite d'argile sur papier 18x25 cm

Notes, drawings and cut out on crystal paper. / Notes, dessins et découpage sur papier cristal (en Français ci-dessous) It’s been a year or two now, I have noticed that when I open my arms, I feel my heart opening with a sensation of Love and I feel/visualise/perceive my self as being as large as the circle that my arms have opened. It makes me feel strong, grounded and powerful. Potentially powerful. A potential power. A potential power from within. A power of Love. How large would the circle be ? I remember a very special dream I had, a couple of years ago. Around the same time of the year, I think. I think it was matching the Spring Equinox. I need to find this dream in my diaries. There was an emasculation. The dark brown soil of the dream reminded me of Kali, or would it be Isis for us ? Those   are times of big personal shifts. For me, for people I love around me. And at a larger scale, for most of us in Europe and around as Russia has attacked and is destroying U

(en francais plus bas) For years now, I have been drawing the story of a winged mermaid but I first heard of Mamy Wata in Cameroon where my mother-in-law also gave me a bracelet representing an African mermaid. The half-snake/half-fish woman is to be found in most cultrues around the world, dating before religions. It is a very important archetype for which one can get lost in research. And even though I knew of Mélusine, it is only this summer that I realised she had "lived" in Vouvant, only a 100 km from where I was born (Nantes) ! I was born in Nantes and grew up between the small village of La Chasse and the island of Noirmoutier. Depuis des années, je dessine l'histoire d'une sirène ailée mais j'ai entendu parler pour la première fois de Mamy Wata au Cameroun où ma belle-mère m'a également offert un bracelet représentant une sirène africaine. La femme mi-serpent/mi-poisson se retrouve dans la plupart des cultures du monde, datant d'avant les religio