Cedric Akue, Artist

What makes us human? What differentiates us from other forms of living things? Certain organisms are capable of using tools to hunt. When put in front of a mirror, dolphins are able to recognize themselves and study marks on their body.

But can any other form of life, other than humans, appreciate an action painting from Pollock or a composition from Carl Orff? Admittedly, we are unique in our own way. The language of art is universal. We see it, we understand it, and it stirs feelings in us that raise our emotions and can put us in a certain mood.

This universal language should not be aimed to touch the individual, but the human being. In other words, the subjective aspects of art should be minimized in order for it to communicate to us as a whole. That is what makes great art. True, it is difficult to tailor something with the intention to please everyone or at least to fit a certain level of their comfort. Far be it for everybody to have the same taste, however certain affinities are almost universally shared.

Such is the case of our chemical senses of gustation and olfaction. We recognize almost universally, that a salty taste is suggestive of seawater, while a sweet taste is delightful to our taste buds; a rotten smell is repulsive, while a fresh scent can be pleasing. By extension, one can recognize that the human race as a whole has certain shared aesthetic affinities. The concept of beauty is one such case. What is considered "beautiful" can be found in any culture, however with variances of definition specific to a given society. I am interested in exploring such aesthetic senses in perception, impression, expression and even assumption.

For some, the aesthetic value of an artistic piece is judged by its accuracy and faithfulness to the natural rendition that it depicts. For others, the emphasis might be on the creation of representations which transcend mere appearance, and by which truth to nature is not of paramount importance. Through the medium of painting and drawing, not only do I approach those aesthetic sensibilities, but I attempt to ascribe them a relative level of connotation and denotation, while probing fully into the possibilities of their perspectives.

My goal is to pursue an objective sense of aesthetics; something shared and appreciated by all, something that can reach the human being. Even in some of my fully representational pieces, I attempt to outstrip the physical realities and leave them aside. The pieces need not simply point at what they represent, instead they reach for a higher connotation. The subjective senses are marginalized for the advantage of our common visual or perhaps emotional perceptional ideals.

Whether this goal is accomplished or not will ultimately be decided by the audience. As Marcel Duchamp, a renowned conceptual artist once put it: "The artist has only 50 % of the responsibility, and that is to put the work out. But the work is not complete until it is returned by the viewer."