Graduating fine arts student reflects on creative journey

By Emmanuel Sossou – Features Editor

University can be a time of self-discovery and exploration for many students, but for students like Marie Constance Hountondji, it can also be a time to revive long-held practices.  

Hountondji’s journey at Bishop’s began during the pandemic in 2020 – the first time she had ever studied online, she points out. As a newcomer to Canada, she had the opportunity to go back to school and decided to major in sports studies, a field in which she was already acquainted, boasting a career as a technical sports advisor. However, after a semester online, she decided to readjust her path and ended up switching to arts administration. 

“I thought to myself, ‘I’ve already done this, why am I doing it again?’”

Why the arts? 

“It’s an old passion,” she states.

Growing up, she recalls that she used to be an artsy kid. “I used to draw well, but my parents never really wanted me to follow that path.”

The fine arts student explains how she has reconnected with this passion and this younger version of herself over the last few years. 

“I have reconnected with the little girl inside me, who felt hurt for not doing what she wanted”, she said.

Hountondji adds that she always kept this connection with the arts. As a former elite athlete who used to run the 800m and the 1500m, she travelled a lot because of sports. In all her trips, the places that impressed her the most were the museums and everything art-related.  

“Every time I would enter those places, and even today, I would have this feeling of goosebumps that would come from deep within, but that I would repress all the time.”  

Sport and art

As distant as the two practices seem, the former athlete remarks that they are not so different and that they are somehow one and the same. 

“Both are practices that develop the human being. Doing sports is an art in itself … the art of movement. In athletics, it’s the beauty of motion… As an athlete, everything you experience, from the beginning to the end, is an art.”

She explains how doing art is another way for her to do sports. 

Her art

“Art is something, if I may put it this way, that you don’t stumble into by chance.”

Born from a Beninese father and a Malian mother, Hountondji says that she grew up in a fairly traditional environment. Her maternal grandfather was a traditional healer and had this traditional way of doing things. She describes how growing up, she was called to leave this traditional style behind. “In a certain way, going to school meant evolving differently from those traditions, setting them aside,” she says.

“My art is a return to my tradition, to everything I’ve always belonged to.”

Hountondji notes that being at Bishop’s has allowed her to better grapple with those aspects of her tradition. “I did studio arts (painting, fiber art …), but I’m thinking ‘Why am I going to school today when I grew up in [traditional art]?’… I’m just not going to go back, open the books of my past and look inside. Today, I flip through these books with pleasure, but I bring them back into my present, and that makes my art.”

In works that feature traditional African items such as calabashes, masks and African loincloths, Hountondji explores themes of tradition and spirituality. Elaborating on them and her creative process, she says: “My themes are much more traditional, more religious; it’s the place of women. Those are all things that I resonate with”. She wonders how she can “highlight that without offending but showing the beauty and richness without trying to sensitize anyone. “I want to show how I see it, how I feel it … Share.”

Culture and identity

Hountondji also highlights the importance of knowing one’s roots. “An individual is the result of all their origins, all their experiences,” she says. Having lived in Algeria, and now Canada, she admits that she became even more appreciative of her culture after leaving her home in Mali.

“When you find yourself in those different environments, you start asking yourself questions about your identity … Who am I? What is my identity as an African? What is my identity as a Malian, as a Beninese, as the daughter of such and such…”

Quoting from an African proverb, she says that “when you live in the world, you must be like a tree.” She explains how although not apparent, it is a tree’s roots that make it a tree and sustain it throughout the seasons.

Hountondji says that she views herself as the guardian of her culture.

“If I want to pass it on, I’ll have to make the effort to do so … I come from a very, very rich culture, and it would be a shame if I were to let this heritage crumble away like that”, she says.

Fine Art Graduating Students’ Exhibition

On pace for completing her degree at Bishop’s, Hountondji, along with seven other student artists, are showcasing their works in the Fine Art Graduating Students’ exhibition at the Foreman Art Gallery.  The opening reception took place on Thursday, April 4. Students’ works will be on display from April 4 – 13.