Ousmane Ndiaye Dago

In his iconic series Femme Terre, Dago presents the human body as a canvas by blending painting, sculpture, and photography. He first covers his models with earth, pigments, and textiles, then photographs them. As living sculptures, his haunting nudes pose in reference to classical statues. Their covered faces offer anonymity responding to the social context of Senegal, where public sensuality is strictly taboo. This also permits them to role-play identities such as goddesses, warriors and queens, who appear to have risen out of the primordial soup. To quote an old African proverb: “The eyes don’t see; it is the spirit that sees.”

Ousmane Ndiaye Dago (1951, Senegal) lives and works in Dakar. He studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Dakar and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. His work has been exhibited at the Biennial of Dakar, the Biennial of Valencia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts of Brno.