Created By
Saleh Lô
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Curator
Luke Chapman
Within the transnational context of its Hong Kong presentation, this work assumes added layers of meaning, foregrounding the entanglements of African realities with global economic circuits, including Sino-African relations that are a vital subtext of Lô’s project. The exhibition collaboration itself reflects this interconnectedness, inviting diverse audiences to engage with urgent ethical questions not only about representation but about complicity and consumption in a world where commodities and lives circulate with equal opacity. Saleh Lô’s practice challenges the viewer’s gaze, moving beyond aesthetic distance toward an ethical attentiveness that resonates deeply in this cosmopolitan space, forcing confrontation with histories both local and global.
The painting Invisible embodies a profound intersection of materiality, memory, and ethical portraiture that resonates across continents. This work extends the artist’s critical visual dialogue on the Talibé condition, drawing the viewer into a complex negotiation of visibility, agency, and global power dynamics. Rendered in oil and acrylic, the portrait engages the viewer in what could be described as “witnessing as praxis,” where the child subject emerges not as a passive victim but as an active co-author of testimony. The painting’s tactile surface and nuanced palette invite sustained contemplation, urging reflection on the socio-political structures that produce such enduring conditions of marginalization and exploitation.
Created By
Saleh Lô
200 x 180 cm | 79 x 71 in
2025
