Head with Black Stripes

Head with Black Stripes

Faceless Head No.71
  • Dimensions: 32 × 27 cm
  • Materials: Terracotta, black pigment, rope
  • Year: 2015
  • Availability: Unique piece
  • Price: Upon request
Artistic Statement of the Head

This head features vertical black stripes on one side, resembling scars or identity marks. The face remains deliberately indistinct, almost erased within the clay. The rope tied around its lower section reinforces the idea of physical or symbolic constraint.

Artistic Statement of the Collection

Within 100 Faceless Heads, this piece plays on the contrast between erased features and the addition of strong signs: lines, ropes, striations. It explores the tension between anonymity and individuality, between disappearance and memory.

Symbolism

The black stripes evoke both scars and tribal markings. They symbolize the indelible traces left by trials, but also belonging and uniqueness—even when the face itself disappears.

The “100 Faceless Heads” Collection

A sculpted memory, a universal story

The “100 Faceless Heads” collection brings together one hundred unique sculptures, hand-shaped in terracotta and rusted metal. These works embody the invisible faces of our collective history: undocumented migrants drowned at sea, victims of slavery, the forgotten of genocides, the nameless whose memories fade away.

Each of these heads, deliberately devoid of features, symbolizes a life, a past, a suspended story. Faceless, they become the silent bearers of individual and collective memories, inviting us to reflect on our shared humanity.

A committed and universal message

Through this series, the artist calls on us to recognize these erased lives and to rebuild bridges between past and future. “I raise a glass to the undocumented who perish in seas and deserts, I denounce the macabre thunder of cannons and wars…” he declares, expressing the emotional and political power of this work.

“100 Faceless Heads” is far more than an art collection: it is a sculptural photo library, a call to memory, to dialogue, and to a deeper understanding of our common roots.

Gustave Akpéhou DJONDA

Self-taught Visual Artist

Passionate about collective memory and questions of identity, the artist works with clay and metal to give form to what is often invisible or forgotten. Through the series “100 Heads Without Faces,” he offers a space for reflection and dialogue on the wounds of the past and the hopes for a more just future.

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