Martin Toloku
Martin Toloku
Martin Toloku is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice has evolved from carving to installation, performance, video work, studio practice and collaboration with animals, specifically termites and aquatic species. He is fascinated about the deterioration of materials and the memories they inhabit. He explores spontaneity as revolutionary aesthetics, while investigating decay in relation to time, space, life and death. He is a board member of perfocraZe International Artist Residency (pIAR) in Kumasi , Ghana and alumni of Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten.
During his residency at iii Martin will be researching how to employ thermal energy generated from the human body into artistic and interactive work.
” My practice revolves around the subject of decay, investigation and research into the history behind dead/rotten woods and other objects found within their environment.
My fascination about the deterioration of objects leads to collaboration with living organisms, specifically termites. I’m very curious about trapped memories and histories hidden within these objects which are raw reflections of their environment, an evidence of time, space and history. Searching for my own language and definition of death and life from our human encounter with space both physical and spiritual.
Through an anthropological approach, my work
is layered across many disciplines. In performance I employ myself as a material object to confront and challenge the mortality of all living beings and my own death phobia. “
