Pascale Marthine Tayou / Cameroon

Cameroon born 1966

Pascale Marthine Tayou creates large, colourful installations and sculptures that explore travel and the effects of globalisation. His work in the NGV Triennial Coloured stones (Pavés colorés), 2015, is an arrangement of quarried granite paving stones, each selectively sprayed with a primary colour. The paving stones reference times of social unrest during which they have been collected and used to combat police and anti-revolutionary forces; for example, during the French Revolution and the May 1968 student protests in Paris. The paving stones and range of colours point to the allegiances and divisions that make up any modern community, as well as to the concrete political history that lies beneath contemporary consumer culture.

BIO

A self-taught artist, Tayou has exhibited his work widely in international group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 2005 and 2009, Documenta 11 in 2002 and the Tate Triennial in 2009. In 2015 Tayou held a solo exhibition in London at the Serpentine Gallery.