"Femme Totem 1" by Masa Zodros
17.5 x 29.5 inches, limited edition #1 of 30 on photo rag paper, 2018, --unframed
Masa Zodros is from La Guadeloupe, a french department in Antilles. She has a diploma of Fine Art and a master in political sociology and currently lives in La Rochelle has done digital photography since 2011.
Zodros first takes her models in studio then uses graphics software to finalize her works. She proposes portraits and paintings as a representation of personalities and kémites characters from her own imaginary, aided by the inlay of wax fabric and traditional Africa, symbols of masks linked to the renewal of African spirituality. She uses her imagination to overcome the constraints of her environment, the uprooting, and the spiritual and cultural dryness that ensues.
"It is certainly an idealized Africa that I represent, far from the real, far from the injunction to criticize, to Moralize.., to State... it is an artistic and almost initiatory approach that is addressed in priority to mine," says Zodros. She gives herself the mission as an artist to offer works inspired by an ancient know-how, a knowledge to be in relation to the world and to the typical African universe.