We're all a little nostalgic about the golden childhood we grew up in. For some, art is the way to remember and revisit the past.
For his first exhibition in Hong Kong, In Deeds and Gestures, Soimadou Ibrahim shows 17 paintings, all with traces of his hometown in the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The artist was born at Itsinkoudi, a remote village in the Comoros archipelago off Mozambique, southern Africa. He spent his childhood there with friends and relatives until he was 10, when he moved to France.
But the place never faded in his memories. When he started painting, those images from his childhood came alive again on canvas.
For his characters, he drew on relatives and friends. In the title piece, In Deeds and Gestures, he drew his brother based on an old photograph.
He said: "I prefer to paint people I know, people I can relate to and have a relationship with. For me, it's easier to paint people you know personally. I had loads of archived pictures of family members, and it was just amazing for me to be able to use those."
In the painting, his brother is seen holding a ylang-ylang flower. "In the original photo, he was actually holding a drink," said Ibrahim. "I changed it to a flower because I wanted to put a reference there."
The ylang-ylang flower, a common plant in Africa, was originally from Asia and was brought to the continent in the 17th century by merchants. Because Comoros was a major hub for merchants from all over the world at the time, the plant was introduced there and reproduced rapidly.
Plants hold a significant place in the artist's work, serving as a recurring motif across his paintings. The Meeting, a larger-scale painting, features a typical plant found in Comoros: musa.
Musa is a kind of banana tree and has been an important source of food and other commodities on the island for ages.
He said the focus of the show is to have a balanced relationship with nature and people. "That's what the title means, that you do good things to others and expect something good in return."
Plants are not the only reference to his hometown in the paintings. In Birds of Teranga, a tiny bird appears alongside the leaves of musa, while the artist's feet casually dangle off the bottom of the canvas. The bird is called teranga, meaning "welcome" in Wolof, the language spoken in Senegal.
Ibrahim said it reflects the inclusive and hospitable nature of people in the country. "It's the word you use in Senegal to show that everyone's welcomed."
This is also his favorite piece in the exhibition, for it represented a time he was enjoying himself and nature in the Comoros.
With his own experience of moving to France at a young age, he said birds became an inspiration because "they travel and migrate in search of food or a better environment, just like humans do."
He wants Hongkongers getting their first glimpse of his works to relate to them just as fellow human beings. "Obviously the subjects in my paintings are black people, but it shouldn't matter if you're black, white, or Asian, the feelings we have are universal and you can just relate to them as human beings."
In Deeds and Gestures is showing at The Galleria, Central, until June 18.
