14 Domino |04 August 2007

The show features fourteen paintings and three video installations. According to the artist the number 14 is a very important number for him personally because it is related to several aspects of the theme addressed in his artworks.

His paintings are made up of dots, which are again related to the game of domino, a traditional game in Seychelles, which he recalls since his early childhood growing up on La Digue.

The theme of dominoes is what this artist is attempting to relate throughout his paintings as well as installations, thereby indicating his interest in a favourite leisure activity which at the same time has proved to be a source of inspiration for his artworks.

The artist, who will make anyone believe he is an enthusiastic domino player, is actually showing the public that you can believe whatever you want to believe about a piece of artwork, as long as the artist can convince you that what he’s saying is actually true.

Therefore, we have here an artist who creates works that are contrary to what we believe he’s telling us.

In short, his artworks are making a point about the way we perceive works of art and that is: we see what we want to see in a piece of artwork, and we believe what we want to believe about art and artists. In other words, we are only showing the way we are responding to an artwork, and not necessarily what the artist is actually saying or portraying in his work.

This is the point Bernard Pool is concerned with in his work, and that is, the perceptions we have about art and artists are not necessarily the same as that of the artist himself.

We each bring our own interpretations to a work of art, while the artist may have an entirely different meaning or purpose in mind.

If you are fully able to understand this concept, you will definitely understand what he is doing in this exhibition.

Peter Pierre-Louis
Courtesy of the Seychelles National Arts Council