Ouattara Watts’ canvases are imbued with pan-African aesthetics and imagery, including references to cultures with strong artistic traditions, like Dogon and Senufo, and to Amharic and other African scripts to represent the varied literary traditions across the continent. Nevertheless, Watts’ practice transcends exclusive association with any one culture or identity and is informed by his life experience spanning three continents. By creating mystical compositions with found objects, photographs, fabric, and paint on monumental canvas, he imagines the metaphysical world and the spiritual connections that bind us all.
As the artist explains: ‘My vision is not bound to a country or a continent; it extends beyond borders and all that can be found on a map. While I use identifiable pictorial elements to be better understood, this project is nevertheless about something much wider. I am painting the Cosmos.’ In fact, Watts’ practice is much inspired by a phrase of his great-uncle’s that he heard as a young child: ‘The artist is the guardian of the cosmos.’ This cosmological motif is evident in certain imagery in his colourful paintings, including stars, crosses, scientific diagrams, and mathematical equations. Watts’ artwork therefore embodies a complex iconography that spans cultures, spirituality, and time.
