Valérie Oka
wants to break down the barriers between art and digital technology.
The
Ivorian-French artist mixes conventional techniques and digitalization to
depict individuals who have shattered social codes and barriers, and she
questions the boundaries between the “real and the virtual”, as she puts it.
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| Valérie Oka stands beside her portrait of Angela Davis. |
Oka believes
that digital know-how is “related to creative freedom”, because through
technology artists can reach a broader audience and spread their vision.
She currently
has an exhibition at UNESCO headquarters in Paris that portray 16 women
activists and political figures such as Angela Davis and Christiane Taubira as
well as artists including outspoken American writer Maya Angelou. The
mixed-media works are a small portion of the 150 portraits she has produced
over the years, of both men and women.
Her exhibition,
titled “La Carte n’est pas le territoire” (The map is not the territory), fills
a hall of the massive UNESCO building and is part of a four-day conference on
creativity and artificial intelligence (AI).
The meeting has
brought together artists, scholars, entrepreneurs and others to discuss the
impact of innovation on the cultural and creative sectors, and how technology
can help to promote sustainable development and gender equality.
Oka says that
the issue of equality is central to her work, along with the idea of the “story
told and the historical truth”.
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| A part of Valérie Oka's exhibition at UNESCO. |
“Sometimes we
don’t see ourselves in history and part of my goal is show Africa’s heroes and
enable the rest of the world to discover them too,” she told SWAN.
“I want to show
these people who aren’t given enough recognition in the mainstream," she
said.
"These are people who defied stereotypes, broke codes and marked history.
I especially wanted to honour women heroes.”
Oka begins her
artistic process with a series of drawings, after which she digitalises the
artwork, adding depth and shadows on the computer. When the portraits are
printed, she enhances them further by hand.
“I think
technology plays an important part in the economic development of a country, and
I want to convey that through my work,” she said, referring to the UNESCO 2005
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural
Expressions. This convention puts creativity “at the heart” of sustainable
development, and the conference comprises a meeting of its intergovernmental
committee.
“Sometimes we
have the impression that Africa is behind with new technologies, but innovative
methods can give the continent the opportunity to speak of its history, to
break barriers, and to move forward,” she added.
Visitors to her
exhibition can also tour a “virtual gallery”, through the use of special 3-D
glasses - another example of the use of technology in art.
Born in France,
to a French mother and Ivorian father, Oka studied and worked in Paris before
opting in 1996 to live in Ivory Coast, where she’s still based. She said she
has had to fight to be able to follow her passion, as traditional parents
“don’t encourage girls to be artists”. Her father would have preferred her to
study law or medicine, she told SWAN.
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| Experts discuss gender equality at UNESCO meeting. |
“As a woman you
have to believe in yourself, you have to insist on the right to have the
profession you want,” she said.
Other
participants in the UNESCO conference, Dec. 11-14, spoke of the relative
absence of women in technology sectors, even when these industries intersect
with culture - another focus of the conference.
“Why don’t
women have access to these sectors? Why aren’t they studying in these areas and
getting training?” asked Dieynaba Sidibé, a Senegalese representative, who took
part in a panel titled “Empowering Creative Women”.
Sidibé directs
a training programme called DigitELLES, which aims to strengthen women’s
technical and artistic skills, and which is among several projects that have
received support from an initiative called “You Are Next: Empowering Creative
Women”, launched by UNESCO and 27-year-old Chinese entrepreneur Sabrina Ho.
According to
the initiative, “a multifaceted gender gap persists in almost all cultural
fields, in most parts of the world. In the digital creative industries, women
entrepreneurs remain invisible even though they represent half of those
employed in these sectors worldwide”.
You Are Next
aims to increase opportunities for women under 40 in the digital creative
industries, according to UNESCO, and it also supports “national policy
initiatives and strategies that address gender equality in this field”.
For some
people, however, the spread of digital technology in the creative sector throws
up a frightening scenario of autonomous machines producing books, paintings,
music. Automation and digitalization globally have also been responsible for
job losses, as many studies have suggested. But others see the technology as a
means to enhance creativity and promote development.
“Digital technology
gives me greater liberty to express myself,” Oka said.
Her exhibition
will travel to several countries in 2019, including Mali in February.
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