Ouagadougou is not a constraint. It is the work.

People ask me why I stay in Ouagadougou.

The question itself contains an assumption — that an artist of international standing should be somewhere else. Paris. New York. London. Somewhere with galleries on every corner and collectors at every dinner.

I want to address that assumption directly.

Beauty is born from limitation

Everything I make comes from what is available here. The barrels, the scrap metal, the hands of fifteen artisans who grew up in the same city I did. If I were working in a studio in Paris with access to any material I wanted, my work would be completely different — and completely less interesting.

Limitation is not a problem to solve. It is the condition of the work.

The studio as ecosystem

Studio SHO is not just a place where objects are made. It is a place where knowledge is transmitted, where young artisans learn a trade, where a way of working is passed from one generation to the next.

When a piece from this studio enters the collection of the V&A Museum or the Brooklyn Museum, it carries something beyond its own form. It carries the hands that made it. The city where it was born. The decision to stay.

Between Ouagadougou and Atlanta

I spend part of my time in Atlanta now. The distance gives me perspective — on my work, on my city, on what it means to make things in Burkina Faso in 2025.

What I see from a distance is this: Ouagadougou is not a constraint. It is the source. Everything that makes my work specific — the geometry, the materials, the process, the social dimension — comes from being here.

I am not staying despite the difficulty. I am staying because of what the difficulty makes possible.