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Theresa Traore Dahlberg

Exhibition picture

In Hakili – The Hare Theresa Traore Dahlberg takes as inception her grandmother, who was a master storyteller, and an enigmatic brass hare found in the collections. The sculpture originated from the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso where also Traore Dahlberg’s grandmother lived for a time. Hares and rabbits are common protagonists in African and African diaspora folktales. Mischiveous, rebellious, but also vain and sometimes amoral, the hare is the trickster who, despite its small size, uses cunning to move and shake more powerful beings and, often to humorous effect, shape the outcome of the narrative. 

Above: Three brass hares casted in Burkina Faso, commissioned by Theresa Traore Dahlberg as part of her work Hakili – The Hare (2021) 

The hare personifies the ethos of African fables as both enjoyable and educational. As Leopold Senghor (anti-colonial writer, poet, and president of Senegal 1960-80) wrote:  

…the fable and even the tale…aim at education. This is what is meant by the formula which ends the Wolof fable: ‘It is from there that the fable left to throw itself into the sea. The first to breathe its perfume will go to Paradise.’ But, in order to educate, tales and fables must charm, beyond the ears, the heart and the mind. (Senghor 1958:209, author’s translation) 

Present in the current work and a persistent theme in Theresa Traore Dahlberg’s artistic oeuvre is the close attention to materialities, their conditions of production, and the meanings they carry for people. During the project the artist collaborated with contemporary casters in Burkina Faso making reworkings of the 1930s brass hare in the Kjersmeier collection, while interviewing them about techniques, motifs, and work-life. More importantly, the multi-modal installation foregrounds material which has escaped the museum’s collection fervor and is therefore not represented in the archives. Scent, sound, and shadow are only rarely captured in museum collections, but feature vividly in the artwork, like whispering spirits sending charged messages into the future to guide and soothe children and grandchildren. The perfume that may send attentive listeners to Paradise.