“TOTEMS TO HAUNT OUR DREAMS,”

In the variable installation entitled “Totems to Haunt our Dreams,” Hervé Youmbi juxtaposes photographic portraits of his artist friends—mostly male and African—and soft-sculpture columns made from stacked shopping bags, each branded with an art-world icon. The artists, many of whom work under trying local conditions in Africa, wear sunglasses emblazoned with logos that similarly signify success in the global art world, and imply the artists’ complex relationships with these global markers. Youmbi celebrates African artists while raising questions about what constitutes success in the art world, and how this is linked to branding and consumption.

The shopping bags Youmbi uses, made from sturdy plastic textile and furnished with a zipper, are widely used in the “developing” world. In Africa, they are popular for transporting trade goods, especially internationally. While their usually humble contents contrast with the elite world of art commodities, they nonetheless symbolize global trade and mobility.

The installation, like the human subjects and commodities it references, is mobile and adaptable. The portraits, printed on tarpaulin, roll into a tube; the bags, emptied of their foam stuffing, pack flat into two suitcases, and travel with the artist as airline luggage. In 2010, “Totems” travelled to the Dakar Biennial (May), Johannesburg for the World Cup (June), Cotonou (July), and Kinshasa (October), with site-specific adjustments to adapt to the various physical and social environments. “Totems” continues to grow, as Hervé Youmbi befriends and photographs more artists.

Hervé Youmbi "“Totems to Haunt Our Dreams" Editions

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Youmbi is a selected artist at Dak'Art, the 10th Dakar biennale, for the international exhibition at the Museum Theodore Monod from

May 11 - 10 June, 2012.

Hervé Youmbi has been awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship  from September to November 2012.