0065
28-02-1996
ZONDER TITEL
Carla Kranendonk
Artist
Bridging distances
From Senegal to Trinidad and Tobago
from Gambia to Jamaica
from Ghana to Cuba, to Surinam
to Brazil and Martinique
A man in a book
A piece from a map of the world
Folded up and spread out
The book is the colour of night
Dark body of paper
If you hold the head up it becomes a starry sky
‘Every African is a star’ sings a Jamaican singer
Equator and backbone
The man’s axis lies in the middle of the book
The paper is thick and looks like leather
A wayang puppet, a silhouette
A body dimly lit by an oil lamp
Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean and Pacific
Indian ink and Prussian blue
Burnt earth in Swaziland
A baobab in Africa is
a monkey bread tree with its roots in the air
My beloved lies on the ground and I draw his outline
beads of sweat glisten on his leg
Sunlight in the tropics is incredibly intense
One foot in Africa and
one foot in South America
The continents have become feet
they always carry their roots with them
Hands flap in the air
Dotted feet in the sand
Africa; so far away and so close in thoughts
A declaration of love
The man as an island
A lithe lover
A painful history
An ineradicable mistake
Drum noises drive away evil spirits
So many different cultures mixed together
Reggae, Calypso, soukous, souk
Salsa, merengue, highlife and steelpan
Foufou, roti and pancake
Back to the motherland
Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Abidjan
He wears rings on his fingers
A shell hidden in a blue stone
-CK
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