The Côte d’Ivoire artist Jems Robert Koko Bi (jehms koh-koh bee) uses wood from fallen trees to make his sculptures. He wanders through the forest around his studio looking for logs to transform into art. “The trees give me instructions, and I carry them out in the wood,” he says. “They advise me, and I tell their stories.’’
The artist then saws, carves, and burns the wood, using knives, saws, chain saws, and fire. Through this reductive process, he reveals the shape of the sculpture.
Koko Bi’s work Mandela, 2700 Pieces of Life’s History, above, is a tribute to Nelson Mandela, the first president of South Africa and an anti-apartheid activist. Composed of geometric blocks of burned spruce wood, it represents Mandela’s fight for freedom. “Wood is like a book; you must read the story that’s inside of it,” Koko Bi says. What story do you see in this work? Do you think about the subject or the trees from a West African forest used to make it?