“Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora” is an exhibition that affords several practicing artists the chance to explore the psychological terrain between the West and Africa, examine the constantly changing physical geographies and contexts in the perceived ever-increasing globalization of the African diaspora and identify the various emotional expressions and aesthetic ambitions that manifest in their own work as result of African diaspora. The curatorial vision of the exhibition set out to create a distinct space of personal and cultural histories, perspectives and artistic visions, while attempting to avoid homogenization of the multiple realties of the artists involved. (Nka, 2008:41). This essay will critically investigate the concept of diaspora, the place it serves in the artistic community as well as the issues of nationalism, the desire to create new spaces, migrancy, memory and the disruption of traditional Western narratives that are explored in the works exhibited in the “Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora” exhibition.
Derived from the early Greek language, the word diaspora means ‘dispersion’ –a literal “sowing abroad” and has since then been linked to ideas of colonization, migration and violent removals from homelands (Peffer, 2003:22-23). The term itself has been critiqued and contested as a concept that is neither neutral nor simply a descriptive term that can be employed by the West when relating to “groups of people, their history and their cultural identities” (Minty, 2004:11). This in itself may explain why some artists were reluctant to participate in the exhibition of African diaspora for fear of their visual artworks being subjected to a homogenized Western view...
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Works Cited
- Farrel, L. 2003. Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contrmporary African Diaspora. Musuem for African Art, New York. Snoeck Publishers.
- Living in Indonesia 1997.
- Manger, L. & Assal, M. 2006. Diasporas Within and Without Africa. The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala.
- Minty, Z. 2004. A Place Called Home: A Contemporary Art Show With Artists form the South Asian Diaspora. South Africa, Cape Town. One.
- Nka: Journal of Contemporary Art. 2008. Duke University Press. 22/23. pg 38-39
- Njami, S. 2003. Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contrmporary African Diaspora – The Diaspora as object. Musuem for African Art, New York. Snioeck Publishers. pg 145-152.
- Peffer, J. 2003. Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contrmporary African Diaspora – The Diaspora as object. Musuem for African Art, New York. Snoeck Publishers. pg. 22-36
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Marcus Garvey had a huge influence on the African Diaspora and where it connected with the black men and women. Ethiopia, in Garvey’s perspective, was seen as the home of all African’s in exile in the African Diaspora. (McMurray 48) See now what Garvey was influencing, yet not the initiator of, was on how the African Diaspora connected with the idea or dream of returning home to Africa. With that movement already going on and established, he was able to feed off other ideas and goals and incorporate them into his own. Garvey began to wonder who was the voice for the African’s and why the black men and women didn’t have the opportunities that other people, not African, did.
In Brent Hayes Edwards essay, “ The Use of Diaspora”, the term “African Diaspora” is critically explored for its intellectual history of the word. Edward’s reason for investigating the “intellectual history of the term” rather than a general history is because the term “is taken up at a particular conjecture in black scholarly discourse to do a particular kind of epistemological work” (Edwards 9). At the beginning of his essay Edwards mentions the problem with the term, in terms of how it is loosely it is being used which he brings confusion to many scholars. As an intellectual Edwards understands “the confusing multiplicity” the term has been associated with by the works of other intellectuals who either used the coined or used the term African diaspora. As an articulate scholar, Edwards hopes to “excavate a historicized and politicized sense of diaspora” through his own work in which he focuses “on a black cultural politics in the interwar, particularly in the transnational circuits of exchange between the Harlem Renaissance and pre-Negritude Fran cophone activity in the France and West Africa”(8). Throughout his essay Edwards logically attacks the problem giving an informative insight of the works that other scholars have contributed to the term Edwards traces back to the intellectual history of the African diaspora in an eloquent manner.
The National Archives | Exhibitions & Learning online | Black presence | Africa and the Caribbean. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/africa_caribbean/africa_trade.htm
This essay deals with the nature of a cross cultural encounter between the Benin people and Portuguese traders in the 15th and 16th centuries, which resulted in the depiction of Portuguese figures in Benin brass plaques. It will propose that this contact between people with different cultures was on the basis of'mutual regard' (Woods, K. 2008, p. 16), and although the Portuguese had qualms about idolatry in Benin it will show that assumptions by Europeans up to the 20th century of the primitive nature of tribal African societies was inaccurate with regard to the Benin people, who had a society based on the succession of the King or 'Oba', a Royal Family and Nobility. The essay will finally suggest that Benin’s increase in wealth following the arrival of the Portuguese led to a resurgence in bronze sculptures and the introduction of a new form, the rectilinear plaque. The plaque under consideration, is of a forward facing man, with an aquiline nose, thin lips, neatly trimmed beard, wearing a sun hat with flaps and looking intently at the viewer. He is dressed in a typical 16th century Portuguese style, wearing a decorated tunic with padded shoulders and tight breeches with short boots.
Jackson, P. (1992). (in)Forming the Visual: (re)Presenting Women of African Descent. International Review of African American Art. 14 (3), 31-7.
In the gallery walk I took several images of piece of work. I took a picture of the Dandy Lion poster that was now a part of the new exhibition. I didn’t know my connection to this project, nor did I know it’s connection to Afrofuturism, Modernism and Post
Many African cultures see life as a cycle we are born, we grow and mature, enter adulthood, and one day we will eventually die but the cycle continues long after death. In Africa art is used as a way to express many things in their society, in this paper I will focus on different ways traditional African art are used to describe the cycle of one’s life. Since Africa is such a large continent it is important to keep in mind that every country and tribe has different rituals and views when it comes to the cycle of life. It is estimated to be well over a thousand different ethnic groups and cultures in Africa today. Thousands of cultures in Africa see the stages of life bound together in a continuous cycle; a cycle of birth, growth, maturity,
Zahan, Dominique. The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa. Trans. Kate Ezra Martin and Lawrence M. Martin. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1979.
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin. Over time, concepts of ‘Race’, defined as a distinct group with a common lineage, and ‘Primitive’ which pertains to the beginning or origin,, have been inextricably linked with the perception of Africa. The confusion of the two in the minds of people at the end of the 19th century, and some of the 20th, caused a sense of superiority amongst the ‘White Races’ that affected every aspect of their interaction with ‘the Black’. The ‘Civilisation’ of Africa by conquest and force is justified by these views.
The Harlem Renaissance had a lot of influence on modern day art because many artist white and black drew inspiration from traditional African sculptures. In the 1900s, “the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became a powerful influence among European artists who formed an avant-garde in the development of modern art.”(“African
Gabriel, Deborah. Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diaspora. London: Imani Media, 2007. Print.
(7) Anthony Kwame Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosphy of Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
In the slippery terrain created by globalization and cultural brokering, contemporary art made in Africa (and its diasporas) has enjoyed a steady growth in interest and appreciation by Western audiences during the last few decades (Kasfir, 2007). Several biennials, triennials, and scholarly works attest to that, with much of its impact owed to the figure of Okwui Enwezor. However, seamlessly uniting diverse African artists under the untrained Western gaze for the commercialism of the international art circuit – notwithstanding their different cultural contexts and the medium in which they work – is bound to create problems. Enwezor’s and other authors’ sophisticated publications and curatorial works show both the vitality and issues still to be addressed in this field of study (Ogbechie, 2010).
I have chosen to describe the artwork Song of the Picks by Gerard Sekoto. I will look at what defines a work as modern and discuss Sekoto's background to fully understand his work and to prove whether it is modern. Several people influenced, supported and encouraged Sekoto and I will briefly discuss them. I will give a brief history of European modernity and its influence on Africa in order to understand African modernity.