ART WE ♥ : DANDELIA BY PAUL SIKA

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"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day" wrote Vincent Van Gogh in a  letter to his brother Theo .

This beautiful sentence sums up perfectly the way I felt when I first stumbled upon these pictures .

 The title for the picture above is "Dandelia #3" , of The "Lilian's Appeal" photo collection, the latest by  Ivorian Photographer Paul Sika.

Paul would certainly prefer to be called a Photomaker , photography being merely one step in his creative work . Paul calls his Art " Photomaking "- The one frame filmaking.

I remember the day we met ... It was about a year ago at a Cultural/Tech event in Abidjan . Of course I had heard of this "Multimedia prodigy * " from my country long before but none of the dozens of articles I had googled and red about him prepared me to face such a brilliant Artist and awesome Person . We have become friends ever since and he has brought me some of the best times in my Life as I modeled for some of the stories in this collection . This was a total blessing for me , we talk about this later . Let's get back to the fact.

I and all Abidjan discovered this work during the party from the preview exhibition the artist held back in November at Cécile Fakhoury gallery  .

To be honest , I could hardly take my eyes off this Dandelia #1 picture for almost the whole night . I was dazzled as I was trying to understand its underlying meaning . I just couldn't figure out how a picture supposed to represent the night could be so ... bright .

The opening was such a success ,however, that they were tons of people attending and I was forced to hold my urge to question the artist until an ulterior opportunity.

This finally happened a few days later when I went back to the gallery and was blessed with a private guided tour by Paul .

So , here is what this work is about :

 The whole story/collection actually takes place in an alternative world ruled by a universal , omnipresent , omnipotent and omniscient power/energy called Yelen.

A few people manage and succeed (through a whole life of hard sacrifices , study and practice ) into reachingPaisley which means reaching a state of the perfect , unrestricted connexion ( nearly fusion) with Yelen ... Those are called "Royal Yelenists". Like Paul says : "Paisley is that which is the most beautiful in the world, Paisley is when you have the right amount of all things" .

When a Yelenist reaches this special stage of evolution ( really rare ! barely one each generation) he or she makes what the artist calls An Appeal , which is the whole point of the collection.

Dandelia is a Yelenist whose " attribute " is the Night . On the above artworks , physical and cosmic signs pertaining to the night activate while she sends off a universal signal intended to arouse new Paisley Seekersaround the world...

I love everything about this work , from Dandelia's glowy dark skin , to the corrugated iron sheets, flying birds and dandelions .

Above all this, what really impresses me and stimulates my admiration towards Paul and his work is the fact that beyond the vibrant and overwhelming visuals there always is a world of meaning and symbolism.One will always find something new about any picture as tons of symbols are carefully dissiminated throughtout , purposefully left to the viewer's appreciation and interpretation . Paul's Art work takes us "elsewhere" , it's the same people ,the same objects but somehow we can really feel that it is a totally different world , something that sounds and feels more like a dream . The following , which was true of Elvis Presley is also true for Paul SIKA and I think it's actually true for every authentic genius "...It was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it.” - Bruce Springsteen.