Wit and humour are a language all onto their own ... a universal language

Sekoer... 'Mr. Sekoer' to the foreign tongue speakers that cannot quite fathom the phonetically transcribed Flemish pun in the comic artist's nom de plume, O-SEKOER, on the French "au-secours" or the English "help" - all in capital letters and fully hyphenated between the -o and the -s.

Not a mavin that will not instantly link this artist name with the cartoons from the Flemish cartoonist O-SEKOER.

O-SEKOER draws modern-day man in all his trivial and more soul searching depths. The humour thus effected, does not necessarily elicit massive roars of laughter among audiences. For, the artist continues to aspire to the more sensitive side of life. He tends to turn everyday events topsy turvy, in order to lead readers up the garden path, so to speak, in the mildmannered way that is his own. No doubt, the reader who is trying to enter into the spirit of the cartoon will find himself reflected in the countless "petty" topics the cartoonist dabbles with.

The reader observes, snickers, reflects, and comprehends ...

O-SEKOER toys around with socially critical themes. His cartoons refer to what are most often emotional contradictions : poor man - rich man, the old versus the young, tall versus small, guilt versus innocence. Readily discernible and therefore very human feelings on topics such as death, loss, parting, suffering and distress, anxiety and apprehension, friendship and disaffection are the foundations that underpin his wit.

First off, he writes his cartoons, jotting down words that spring to mind and drafting rough sketches onto a scribbling pad. The humour he is after is laboured and fabricated, in the best possible sense of the word. It is well-reasoned in its composition. He is in the business of creating conflict, joining antipodes, in search of those junctures where sparks ignite. Through the process of mutation and switching sections and sequences, the humour suddenly comes about, with the cartoonist distancing himself from reality as far as possible. The sketch does not get to be cartoon until it finds itself face to face with the actual ken the reader has of reality. Through his cartoons, O-SEKOER attempts to poke fun at the world in a tone of irony and satire.

O-SEKOER's amusing convolutions of the brain have stood the test of time. They are double entendre's, innuendo at its best that never fails to touch the right string. What it is not is cheap mockery or easy slapstick. It is not the sketch in itself that sparks off the wit, but the confrontation with the reader. Behind the pictorial humour lies a message ...

O-SEKOER does not publish in newspapers or weeklies, nor does he do political cartoons. He chiefly draws with international cartoon festivals in mind. As such, he annually submits his work to some 30 major exhibitions worldwide. After a career that has spanned 2 decades, he is able to present a List of Achievements that is positively bulking with international success. Winning nominations, honorary mentions and first prizes from the most widely differing festivals as far afield as Japan, Bulgaria, Bresil, Turkey, Cuba and Spain. The world over, cartoon museums and humour archives stock selections from this artist. He "hangs" the world over!

If there is such a thing as a secret behind these triumphs and conquests, then more than anything it lies in the fact that his language of drawing is a language that is ubiquitous. The humour he presents is ageless and the images themselves more than carry sufficient poignancy to convey the message.

His cartoons shy away from verbal discourse and text balloons.

Above all, he attempts to underpin this precept with a highly delicate drawing technique : soft pastels, a monochrome colour palette, rough black marking lines and orderly strokes of the pen make his work into eye-stoppers, sure to attract the attention of any jury.

In the "Umoristica Marostica 1998" cartoon book, Piero Zanotto (Italy) described O-SEKOER's experimental graphic art style as an example of great artistic value. As early as 1990, in recognition of his merits, O-SEKOER was awarded the 'Mejor Trazo'- Best Pen Stroke prize in Colombia.

Early this year, 30 of his works were placed on public display in Bratislava, Slovakia, at the invitation of FECO (Federation of European Cartoonist Organisations). Several O-SEKOER cartoons reached the finals of The International Yomiuri Shimbun Contest in Japan, the largest and most prestigious festival of its kind in the world, with over 15.000 submissions sent in every year.

His humourous photographs too have amply tasted international success. On two occasions already, he has won the "Golden Lens" prize at the Knokke-Heist International Photo Festival.

The "First Lady" shot in particular scored both in Knokke-Heist, Gabrovo (Hungary) and Tolentino (Italy).

His pictures cause the viewer to feel uncertain as to what is real and what has been staged. Ostensibly they seem like photographed cartoons, thoughtfully composed and with great attention paid to detail, leaving the viewer to topple into an image that is disorientingly surreal. In this discipline too, he manages to strike a subtle balance between message and form, between content and style.