A poetic meditation on memory, identity and the quiet power of shadow
Saïdou Dicko, LOVE OF NATURE, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and The Photographers’ Gallery.
The Photographers’ Gallery presents ‘Tracing Shadows’, a new exhibition by self-taught Burkinabè artist Saïdou Dicko. Featuring a series of striking mixed-media works, the exhibition explores themes of memory, visibility, and cultural continuity, rooted in Dicko’s journey from a shepherd boy in the Sahel to a celebrated visual artist.
Now based in Paris, Dicko (b. 1979, Déou, Burkina Faso) has developed a multidisciplinary practice that encompasses photography, painting, video, and installation. But his fascination with shadow began long before he picked up a camera. As a child herding sheep in the Sahel, he would trace their silhouettes in the sand – a formative ritual that continues to shape his artistic language today. “I like the shadow because the shadow is neutral,” he explains. “The shadow is my childhood. The shadow has guided me in art.”
In ‘Tracing Shadows’, Dicko’s photographic portraits are transformed through ink, collage, and layered symbolism. His silhouetted figures – part of an ongoing series called Shadowed People – are more than anonymous shapes. They carry multigenerational stories, ancestral memories, and imagined futures, reflecting collective experience through a deeply personal lens.
Set against vibrantly patterned backdrops, the figures evoke the rich visual tradition of African studio photography and Burkinabè textiles. A recurring cross motif – painted above the heads of many figures – draws from designs Dicko remembers from rugs in his childhood home, a quiet nod to memory and cultural heritage. Details such as beads and jewellery remain visible, offering glimpses into personal identity and tradition.
There’s a dreamlike quality to the works but also a quiet resistance. In one series, the artist repurposes plastic water containers – objects often overlooked or discarded – reframing them as symbols of play, survival and imagination. In doing so, Dicko comments on environmental precarity and access to resources while also celebrating the creativity of children who transform everyday objects into toys.
Through this interplay of photography and painterly intervention, Dicko invites viewers into a liminal space – one where visibility, history, and emotional truth emerge through shadow. His work sits in tension: between presence and absence, childhood and adulthood, play and politics.
Dicko’s artistic trajectory has been shaped by curiosity and experimentation. He began photographing in 2005 and, within a year, was awarded the Prix Blachère at the Dakar Biennale Off (2006). Since then, he has exhibited internationally and co-founded Rendez-Vous des Artistes, a nomadic platform that fosters exchange among artists and cultural practitioners across Africa and beyond. He has also curated and collaborated on numerous projects, including with ARKANE AFRICA in Morocco and the International Biennial of Casablanca.
Through it all, shadow remains both subject and metaphor – a device for exploring freedom, erasure, equality and belonging. “I like the imaginary side of the shadow,” Dicko says. “It allows me to speak of the invisible, of what we carry with us.”
The exhibition will be on view from July 4 until September 7, 2025.
