HOMO LUDENS

Homo Ludens takes its title from Johan Huizinga’s 1938 text, which positions play as a foundational condition of culture rather than a form of escape from it. Developed from observations in Zanzibar, the series follows children constructing and racing makeshift dhow boats along the shoreline in Jambiani.

The works observe play not as spectacle, but as an instinctive process of invention, negotiation, imitation, and collective imagination. Moving between figuration and dissolution, the paintings attempt to hold onto the fleeting choreography of bodies, water, and improvised objects suspended between game, ritual, and survival.