Posted October 30, 2018 by Dioniso Punk Art

Super Africa

Started as a continuation of a project he began in Indonesia, Alexander Eudier tries to keep the eye at the West’s benevolence towards Africa by photographing people who bring import icons like they’re pots or dress as Marvel characters. Mainly realised in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Meknes, Morocco, the idea was to use local traditional crafts to reinterpret pop culture, merging African clichés with familiar symbols of consumerism and new technologies, thereby creating situations that question the images we see in the media.

As in the case of his superheroes series, to achieve that particular shine, the costumes were made completely out of bazin. This particular fabric is quite popular and generally used for regalia, so it commands a certain respect. To reach its full glistening potential, you need to coat it in vegetable sap.

Alexander chose to recreate superheroes for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, because of aesthetics — the costume’s bright colors echoed that of the traditional local outfits. There was also something quite funny about swapping out the ultra skin-tight costumes of hyper-masculine superheroes with these baggy tunics.

Among his models, he hired Kaboré — Spider-Man —, who is part of a small organization that creates theater sets and with whom he’s collaborated on several projects, Gedor — Iron Man —, who had just finished his art studies and was looking for an apprenticeship, and Mathias — Batman —, who doubled as their driver.