HILARY BALU
About Hilary
HILARY BALU | @BALUHILARY
The Interview
Tell us about the music you chose to build your playlist and why you picked these songs.
In my list of chosen songs many are from African and diaspora artists whose music inspires me a lot as they sing about the conditions and reality of black people in a global approach and this affects my work.
Does the music you listen to inspire any of your work?
Yes of course it's very inspiring sometimes, there are phrases or words that I can take from a song that can enrich my research for my series or a story for my painting.
Who is your top artist and why?
There are many but I prefer Youssoupha because he is very deep, poetic with his songs and political at the same time I really like the way he deals with the contradiction of our contemporary world and how he uses it to relate life in a very personal approach and that inspires me, and reveals to me the contradictory reality that my community lives.
Tell us about your process and how you tune in when you are ready to begin creating.
My work process begins with a search for information on the subject I'm about to address, often it's historical research. And then when I find elements or objects that connect me to the project. Sometimes I make my own objects. Then, I pursue the idea of creating scenes often theatrical with these objects and the models (physical persons) chosen. Then I proceed in drawing first and then comes the stage of the photography. This step is very important since it defines the way I decide to put it in paint.
The photos chosen to be transferred to the canvas have to be scaled.
Sometimes when I don't have enough energy to start working, I put on South African music, which has an incredible vibrating sound that gives me energy. After I have energy, I put on agility music that allows me to connect more intimately with my canvas. When I start to feel my canvas, let's say I start to dive into another spiritual dimension with my canvas, I usually listen to Kery James or Youssoupha for their metaphors and their paradoxes in their way of placing words. Let's say that I like their way of playing with words because at this moment it enriches me to dialogue and put new approaches on my work. When I come to the end of my work I like to listen to melancholic music to transmit the soul and the sweetness. Because the reality I paint is very hard and I choose a poetic and soft way to translate it. And I think that at the end of my work, this is what I think to transmit.
Tell us more about your practice. What inspires your work and how does your playlist inspire you?
My work is inspired by the relationship that exists between my country, the DRC, and the world since its contact with the West. And how today the population tries to survive this transformation that it underwent in its spiritual, political, economic and cultural identity since slavery and colonization. In my playlist, the albums of the artist Youssoupha "Négritude and Noir désir" inspire me a lot to this practice of reflection on my work.