Camille Tete Azankpo

Tété Azankpo is a self-taught artist, born in Lome, Togo. His engagement with the arts is characterized by his hands-on approach to making a sustainable living. He began as a welder and metal worker, learning about form, construction and stability. He then moved into the real estate sector, learning how to be a successful agent by creating eye-catching and engaging home advertisements. He finally transferred this knowledge of visual language to become a sign painter, and printer of serigraphs. In 1997, Azankpo created a defining piece, debuting his arts career. He erected life-size sculptures made with wood and recycled materials on more than two and a half acres of rugged terrain north of Lomé. Titled Les Épouvantails des Champs (The Fields’ Scarecrows), this work was the first of its kind in the subregion, engaging nearby youth communities in its creation and attracting visitors from beyond Togo’s borders. Azankpo soon opened his own art studio, creating works that became immediately recognizable for their sculpture assemblage technique, and use of bright colors and recycled materials. Azankpo seeks to use his artwork to visualize the barriers between people – visible and invisible – that block the path for greater understanding and unity. Azankpo is extremely intentional about the materials he uses in his works. The works are constructed with fractured materials cut from enamel basins and metal boxes. They are then sewn with wire onto pieces of wood to recreate a harmony, and to tell a story. There is much symbology in his choice of materials. Enamel basins, once ubiquitous in West Africa, were cherished objects that accompanied women throughout their lives. Beyond their practical use and aesthetics, they carried personal and political messages. Azankpo sees them as a homage to women, to their strength, and to their role in society. The metal boxes he uses in his works are containers that hold the things which sustain us -food, medicine, and entertainment. They mirror our choices as consumers, choices which are dictated by our vulnerability to advertising. The basins and metal containers are symbols of globalization and meet in his work to tell a universal human story.