B G.29.04.1997 and K A.24.01.1991

Beye Gille Gacha is a visual artist and aspiring art historian of Cameroonian and French descent. Fascinated with the Bamileke beading tradition, she learned to bead at the age of 19. She has since incorporated beads as surface embellishment in many of her sculptures and installations.
For the Bamileke, beaded items are not simply precious, they are associated with power, status and nobility. Traditionally, beaded thrones, scepters and canes were attributes of royalty. Describing herself as “not very royal,” Beye underscores material importance of beads as a reflection on identity and the social standing of the human being.
In B G.29.04.1997 and K A.24.01.1991 the artist covered wax sculptures with neat strands of celestial-blue and cobalt-blue glass beads to reminds viewers about the noble, elevating and eternal symbolism of blue. By choosing a color that is not typical of human skin, she opens up a conversation on equalities and inequalities in today’s society. Gacha commented, “We all are foreigners to someone, and we all are mixed culturally and intellectually. It all depends on the eyes the beholder.”