THE CROCODILE’S POOL IS EMPTY responds to Kaya Uzel’s ethnographic work involving protest and revolution in Burkina Faso and more specifically the Burkinabe concept of 'naam', a form of political power that is gained through transgressive acts of consumption.
Our collaboration explores animal idioms that bridge the Burkinabe revolution of ’83 under Thomas Sankara with a new wave of protests against the government of Blaise Compaore in 2014. Members of the public occupied the president's family residence, dismantling the building and annotating its structure with incantations and protest graffiti. Text inside an emptied swimming pool reads “Le fleuve du crocodile est vide”.
THE CROCODILE’S POOL IS EMPTY treats the gallery space much like this emptied seat of power, as a site of paradox and potential uprising.