The State of the Masses
Here is a audio-book that maybe of interested to those looking for a new look at Democracy.
Here is a audio-book that maybe of interested to those looking for a new look at Democracy.
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Shoowa Design from the Kingdom of Kuba
Shoowa Design: African Textiles from the Kingdom of Kuba Hardcover – 2 Feb 1987
Description:
The Shoowa people, a small tribe from the kingdom of Kuba, now Zaire, have been designing and making embroidered textiles for hundreds of years. With their complex geometrical patterning and bold colours, these works of art were used in a variety of ways by the Shoowas, as status symbols, dowries, shrouds, religious vestments or as a type of currency. Genuine production ceased around 1905, with the result that they have become collectors' items. This is a study of these textiles and their history. 100 designs have been selected, photographed and analyzed. Diagrams show each design's development from basic motif to complicated pattern. The history of the Shoowa people is traced and the various influences on their designs, such as prehistoric art are discussed.
Review
Author | fastidious one - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover
Intriguingly enough, Kuba cloth or raffia is commonly known and
typically used when mentioning these textiles. The Kuba people refer to
themselves as Bushoong, which the word Kuba is actually a Luba word
associated with the ancient Bantu Kingdoms. The SHOOWA people are a
very small tribe within the Kuba kingdom, and have not been examined
closely by ethnographers, so SHOOWA embroidery are recognized and known
by a dwindling few collectors. Kuba design has three stages or cycles;
1) Cosmogony
2) The institution of royalty
3) Migrations in the Kasai
The Children of Woot: A History of the Kuba Peoples provides astonishing insights into Kuba origins and the cultures. In fact, the number "3" into "1" and particularly, the number "9" are essential symbolic elements weaved and embroidered into these textiles as tattoos and scarifications worn by women --- "9" being a royal (and divisible) number, as well as the number of Woot's children.
Shoowa and Kuba textiles display this numerical and complex encoded geometrical symbology and dynamic language, as well as other ancient symbols of royalty and power. These designs are traced and rooted in prehistoric human history, showing the development from basic geometric motifs to highly complicated patterns. Ironically, the "prehistoric" human continues to prove to have been more advanced, intelligent and civilized than his evolved successor's notions to accept and concede.
European artists such as Gustav Klimt and Henry Matisse were fascinated with these works --- juxtaposing certain textiles which deeply inspired and influenced their own artistic creations. Matisse even displayed them on his walls, and his personal bedroom had many of them. Some affectionately refer to SHOOWA and Kuba textiles as "Matisse cloths." In 1985 alone (around the year of this publication), it is estimated that over 10,000 pieces of embroidery left the Kasai in the course of the past 20 years. The oldest textiles range from early 20th century, and the most recent works shown are from the 1950s and 1960s era.
Although, Georges Meurant appears to be skeptical of the Kuba kingdom's (mythical) origins and the sort, it is high-time and fitting to rightfully accredit these indigenous people beyond the typical primitive labeling... And, this book is a giant step in the right direction!
----
The Kuba by Bonnie E Weston
Source: The Kingdom of Kuba
1) Cosmogony
2) The institution of royalty
3) Migrations in the Kasai
The Children of Woot: A History of the Kuba Peoples provides astonishing insights into Kuba origins and the cultures. In fact, the number "3" into "1" and particularly, the number "9" are essential symbolic elements weaved and embroidered into these textiles as tattoos and scarifications worn by women --- "9" being a royal (and divisible) number, as well as the number of Woot's children.
Shoowa and Kuba textiles display this numerical and complex encoded geometrical symbology and dynamic language, as well as other ancient symbols of royalty and power. These designs are traced and rooted in prehistoric human history, showing the development from basic geometric motifs to highly complicated patterns. Ironically, the "prehistoric" human continues to prove to have been more advanced, intelligent and civilized than his evolved successor's notions to accept and concede.
European artists such as Gustav Klimt and Henry Matisse were fascinated with these works --- juxtaposing certain textiles which deeply inspired and influenced their own artistic creations. Matisse even displayed them on his walls, and his personal bedroom had many of them. Some affectionately refer to SHOOWA and Kuba textiles as "Matisse cloths." In 1985 alone (around the year of this publication), it is estimated that over 10,000 pieces of embroidery left the Kasai in the course of the past 20 years. The oldest textiles range from early 20th century, and the most recent works shown are from the 1950s and 1960s era.
Although, Georges Meurant appears to be skeptical of the Kuba kingdom's (mythical) origins and the sort, it is high-time and fitting to rightfully accredit these indigenous people beyond the typical primitive labeling... And, this book is a giant step in the right direction!
----
The Kuba by Bonnie E Weston
Source: The Kingdom of Kuba
The
Kuba live in the Lower Kasai region of central Zaire in a rich environment of
dense forest and savanna. Organized into a federation of chiefdoms, the almost
200,000 Kuba are a diverse group of over eighteen different peoples unified
under the Bushong king. They share a single economy and, to varying degrees,
common cultural and historical traditions. Agriculture is the main occupation,
supplemented by hunting, fishing, and trading. The name "Kuba" comes from the Luba people to the southeast. The Kuba
call themselves "the children of Woot"— after their founding ancestor
(Vansina 1964:6;1078:4).
Praised as "God on Earth," the king, nyim, is a divine ruler who controls fertility and communicates with the creator, Mboom. The royal court at Nsheng is a hierarchical complex of councils and titled officials who advise the king and balance his power. Outlying Kuba chiefdoms are largely autonomous, organized on models analogous to those of the capital but on a lesser scale (Vansina 1964:98-99; 1978:216). Kuba society parallels governmental organization in that it is stratified. Yet the Kuba people prize hard work and achievement, and while position of birth may secure advantage, it is not binding (Vansina 1964:188;1968:13,15).
Kuba religion, however, is not highly organized. The creator, Mfcoom, is recognized but is not formally worshiped. More consideration is given to Woot, who led the Kuba migration "up river" and established matrilineal descent, male initiation, and kingship. Local nature spirits, tended by priests and priestesses, are actively involved in people's lives, notably in matters of fertility, health, and hunting. The Kuba have no ancestor cult but do believe in reincarnation (Vansina 1964:9-10).
Kuba arts primarily address status, prestige, and the court; they are manifestations of social and political hierarchy. Rank and wealth are expressed in extensive displays of regalia: jewellery, rich garments of embroidered raffia cloth, ceremonial knives, swords, drums, and elaborated utilitarian items. Valuable imported cowrie shells and beads embellish garments, furniture, baskets, and masks.
The outstanding Kuba style diagnostic is geometric patterning used to embellish the surfaces of many objects. These designs are woven into raffia textiles and mats, plaited in walls, executed in shell and bead decoration, and incised on bowls, cups, boxes, pipes, staffs, and other forms including masks. All art forms and designs are laden with symbolic and iconographic meaning, and the same is true of the rich Kuba masquerades.
Masking was first introduced by a woman who carved a face on a calabash, the original model for initiation masks. The invention was taken over by men, incorporated into initiation, and remains a male privilege. Once Bushong boys move into the nkan initiation shelter, they can wear masks and make excursions into the village frightening women and small children. More powerful masks are worn by initiation officials. The masked Kuba dancer is, in every instance, a spirit manifestation (Torday 1910:250; Vansina 1955:140).
Praised as "God on Earth," the king, nyim, is a divine ruler who controls fertility and communicates with the creator, Mboom. The royal court at Nsheng is a hierarchical complex of councils and titled officials who advise the king and balance his power. Outlying Kuba chiefdoms are largely autonomous, organized on models analogous to those of the capital but on a lesser scale (Vansina 1964:98-99; 1978:216). Kuba society parallels governmental organization in that it is stratified. Yet the Kuba people prize hard work and achievement, and while position of birth may secure advantage, it is not binding (Vansina 1964:188;1968:13,15).
Kuba religion, however, is not highly organized. The creator, Mfcoom, is recognized but is not formally worshiped. More consideration is given to Woot, who led the Kuba migration "up river" and established matrilineal descent, male initiation, and kingship. Local nature spirits, tended by priests and priestesses, are actively involved in people's lives, notably in matters of fertility, health, and hunting. The Kuba have no ancestor cult but do believe in reincarnation (Vansina 1964:9-10).
Kuba arts primarily address status, prestige, and the court; they are manifestations of social and political hierarchy. Rank and wealth are expressed in extensive displays of regalia: jewellery, rich garments of embroidered raffia cloth, ceremonial knives, swords, drums, and elaborated utilitarian items. Valuable imported cowrie shells and beads embellish garments, furniture, baskets, and masks.
The outstanding Kuba style diagnostic is geometric patterning used to embellish the surfaces of many objects. These designs are woven into raffia textiles and mats, plaited in walls, executed in shell and bead decoration, and incised on bowls, cups, boxes, pipes, staffs, and other forms including masks. All art forms and designs are laden with symbolic and iconographic meaning, and the same is true of the rich Kuba masquerades.
Masking was first introduced by a woman who carved a face on a calabash, the original model for initiation masks. The invention was taken over by men, incorporated into initiation, and remains a male privilege. Once Bushong boys move into the nkan initiation shelter, they can wear masks and make excursions into the village frightening women and small children. More powerful masks are worn by initiation officials. The masked Kuba dancer is, in every instance, a spirit manifestation (Torday 1910:250; Vansina 1955:140).
Three royal mask types
exist: the tailored Mwaash aMbooy,
representing Woot and the king; the wooden face mask, Ngady Mwaash aMbooy,
the incestuous sister-wife of Woot; and the wooden helmet mask, Bwoom
,the commoner. These characters appear in a variety of contexts including
public ceremonies, rites involving the king, and initiations. Although their
dances are generally solo, together the three royal masks reenact Kuba myths of
origin (Cornet 1982:254,256; Roy 1979:170).
Bwoom is a wooden helmet mask elucidated by varied oral traditions. The Kuba feel that one " 'understands' the why of something if one knows how it 'began'; something is known if it is explained" (Vansina 1978:15). Thus Bwoom is the spirit first seen by nkan initiates; he is a hydrocephalic prince, a commoner, a pygmy, or one who opposes the king's authority. Two traditions trace Bwoom's origin to the reign of King Miko mi-Mbul, who had gone mad after killing the children of his precedessor. Although he finally became sane, Miko would lapse into madness each time he wore Mwaash aMbooy, the most important royal mask and until then the only one worn by the king himself. A pygmy offered the king Bwoom as an alternative. Suffering no ill effects with the new mask, Miko accepted it. A less dramatic version is that Miko, known as a great dancer, was simply seduced by the pygmy's creation and adopted it despite its humble character. In both cases the King is credited with improvements to the mask that justify its inclusion in the royal repertoire (Cornet 1982:269).
As inconsistent as they may seem, each account expresses an aspect of the mask or its character. The identification of Bwoom as a pygmy or a hydrocephalic man is often cited to explain the mask's enlarged forehead and broad nose. Bwoom appears in initiation and is always considered a spirit. The lowly origin of the character is reflected in its description: "a person of low standing scarcely worthy of being embodied by the king" (Cornet 1975:
89) and conversely in its defiant performance opposite the regal Mwaash aMbooy. The two may act out a competition for the affections of the one female in the royal mask trio, Ngady mwaash aMbooy (Cornet 1982:255). Mwaash aM-booy's dance is calm and stately, while Bwoom acts with pride and aggression (Cornet 1982:255). The masks are easily differentiated by material, for Bwoom is carved from a single piece of wood and Mwaash aMbooy is made from cloth and raffia textiles.
Bwoom appears on the nkan "initiation fence" of the Bushong (Vansina 1955:150-151) and in other initiation contexts. Little is known of this mask (or indeed most Kuba arts) outside of the royal Nsheng tradition. A royal mask, Bwoom is sometimes worn by the king. Yet unlike Mwaash aMbooy, Bwoom does not appear at funerals, and it is never interred with the king or other dignitaries (Cornet 1982:270). The costume is similar to that of Mwaash aMbooy: heavy with profuse layers of raffia-cloth, bead and cowrie decoration, leopard skins, anklets, armlets, and fresh leaves. Eagle feathers or other prestigious media are added to the crown of the head when the mask is danced.
Despite regional variations, the Bwoom mask conforms to a distinct type. All styles feature strongly rendered proportions dominated by an enlarged brow, broad nose, and usually naturalistic ears. Typical features include the metal work on the forehead, cheeks, and mouth, bands of beads that embellish the face, and an expanse of beadwork at the temples and back of the head. Plate 8 has these plus patterned raffia-cloth covering the top of the
head, with a fringe of hair. The blue beads set into the white band at the temples imitate ethnic tattoo patterns (Cornet 1982:266), and the design at the back of the head is one associated with royalty.
origin (Cornet 1982:254,256; Roy 1979:170).
Bwoom is a wooden helmet mask elucidated by varied oral traditions. The Kuba feel that one " 'understands' the why of something if one knows how it 'began'; something is known if it is explained" (Vansina 1978:15). Thus Bwoom is the spirit first seen by nkan initiates; he is a hydrocephalic prince, a commoner, a pygmy, or one who opposes the king's authority. Two traditions trace Bwoom's origin to the reign of King Miko mi-Mbul, who had gone mad after killing the children of his precedessor. Although he finally became sane, Miko would lapse into madness each time he wore Mwaash aMbooy, the most important royal mask and until then the only one worn by the king himself. A pygmy offered the king Bwoom as an alternative. Suffering no ill effects with the new mask, Miko accepted it. A less dramatic version is that Miko, known as a great dancer, was simply seduced by the pygmy's creation and adopted it despite its humble character. In both cases the King is credited with improvements to the mask that justify its inclusion in the royal repertoire (Cornet 1982:269).
As inconsistent as they may seem, each account expresses an aspect of the mask or its character. The identification of Bwoom as a pygmy or a hydrocephalic man is often cited to explain the mask's enlarged forehead and broad nose. Bwoom appears in initiation and is always considered a spirit. The lowly origin of the character is reflected in its description: "a person of low standing scarcely worthy of being embodied by the king" (Cornet 1975:
89) and conversely in its defiant performance opposite the regal Mwaash aMbooy. The two may act out a competition for the affections of the one female in the royal mask trio, Ngady mwaash aMbooy (Cornet 1982:255). Mwaash aM-booy's dance is calm and stately, while Bwoom acts with pride and aggression (Cornet 1982:255). The masks are easily differentiated by material, for Bwoom is carved from a single piece of wood and Mwaash aMbooy is made from cloth and raffia textiles.
Bwoom appears on the nkan "initiation fence" of the Bushong (Vansina 1955:150-151) and in other initiation contexts. Little is known of this mask (or indeed most Kuba arts) outside of the royal Nsheng tradition. A royal mask, Bwoom is sometimes worn by the king. Yet unlike Mwaash aMbooy, Bwoom does not appear at funerals, and it is never interred with the king or other dignitaries (Cornet 1982:270). The costume is similar to that of Mwaash aMbooy: heavy with profuse layers of raffia-cloth, bead and cowrie decoration, leopard skins, anklets, armlets, and fresh leaves. Eagle feathers or other prestigious media are added to the crown of the head when the mask is danced.
Despite regional variations, the Bwoom mask conforms to a distinct type. All styles feature strongly rendered proportions dominated by an enlarged brow, broad nose, and usually naturalistic ears. Typical features include the metal work on the forehead, cheeks, and mouth, bands of beads that embellish the face, and an expanse of beadwork at the temples and back of the head. Plate 8 has these plus patterned raffia-cloth covering the top of the
head, with a fringe of hair. The blue beads set into the white band at the temples imitate ethnic tattoo patterns (Cornet 1982:266), and the design at the back of the head is one associated with royalty.
Kongo at the Met.
Kongo: Power and Majesty
Source: The Met
September 18, 2015–January 3, 2016
Exhibition Location: Special Exhibition Gallery, first floor, Gallery 199
Press preview: Wednesday, September 16, 10:00–noon
A landmark presentation that will radically redefine our understanding of Africa’s relationship with the West, Kongo: Power and Majesty,
opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this September, will focus on
one of the continent’s most influential artistic traditions, from the
earliest moment of direct engagement between African and European
leaders at the end of the 15th century through the early 20th century.
The creative output of Kongo artists of Central Africa will be
represented by 146 works drawn from more than 50 institutional and
private collections across Europe and the United States, reflecting five
hundred years of encounters and shifting relations between European and
Kongo leaders. From a dynamic assembly of 15 monumental power figures
to elegantly carved ivories and finely woven textiles, the exhibition
will explore how the talents of Central Africa’s most gifted artists
were directed toward articulating a culturally distinct vernacular of
power.
The exhibition is made possible by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund and the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund.
The story of Central African art has been
told until now with a focus on the 19th century. This exhibition will
take a longer view, establishing that Kongo’s great sophistication and
spectrum of artistic expression was a continuum, from the time of the
first incursions by Europeans along the coast through the colonial period.
“The electrifying Mangaaka power figure
acquired by the Met in 2008 was the impetus for this exhibition,” said
Alisa LaGamma, the Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge of the
Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. “On view
in our galleries for the past seven years, this iconic symbol of law and
order has been the object of universal fascination, so we decided to
delve deeper into the history and circumstances of its creation. While
exploring Kongo’s centuries-long cultural interaction with the outside
world, and the full spectrum of Kongo aesthetics, our research led to
new discoveries and to this unprecedented opportunity for the full play
of the artists’ ingenuity to be admired across a range of genres.”
European Powerbrokers and Kongo Luxury Arts
Nearly a decade before Christopher
Columbus set foot in the New World, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão
disembarked along the coast of modern day Angola. This turning point in
world history brought about significant exchanges of material culture
across the Atlantic. Cão commemorated his arrival in 1483, as an
emissary for King Joặo II of Portugal, by marking the site with a
limestone monument that had been carved in Lisbon. That limestone
landmark will now mark visitors’ entry into Kongo: Power and Majesty.
Among the earliest African artifacts
preserved in the West are prestige items created by Kongo artists who
were active in a series of distinct polities positioned across a region
that spans what is today northern Republic of the Congo, Angola, and
southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition to the celebrated
state known as Kongo, the exhibition considers its less well-known
culturally related regional neighbors such as the Kingdom of Loango. The
Kingdom of Kongo’s elite embraced literacy from the earliest moment of
contact, and the survival of their writings on religious and political
matters set the kingdom apart, making it one of the best documented
pre-colonial African states. Featured in the exhibition are 16th- and
17th-century missives from Kongo sovereigns to their European
counterparts, affording a critical African perspective on world events.
From the same period—and a focal point of Kongo: Power and Majesty—are
the creations of regional artists that were prized for their refined
workmanship and rarified materials. These exotic ivories, inscribed with
delicate geometric designs, and woven raffia fiber textiles adorned
with related abstract motifs, entered into the collections of European
princes and wealthy merchants from the 16th through the 18th century.
Most of these, including a series of ivory oliphants believed to have
entered the Medici collections under Giovanni de’ Medici (1475–1521)
(Pope Leo X), appear to have been sent by Kongo leaders as diplomatic
gifts. The scope of this little-known Kongo pre-colonial corpus has
never before been presented in an exhibition. Kongo: Power and Majesty
will introduce a critical mass of these exquisite, rarely displayed
works that are dispersed internationally. Among the celebrated and
prestigious historical collections lending to the exhibition are the
Royal Kunstkammer of King Frederick III of Denmark in Copenhagen, the
Württemberg Kunstkammer in Stuttgart, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II’s
Prague Castle collections, and Queen Christina of Sweden’s Royal
Collection, Stockholm.
For the first time, Kongo masterpieces
will bring to life a critical chapter of Central African history that
precedes colonialism by some 400 years. These early Kongo creations
attest to the exceptional complexity of Kongo artistry predating contact
with Europe as well as the degree to which its most talented
practitioners immediately embraced the ensuing influx of ideas
introduced from the outside.
A Container for Power in Kongo Society: The nkisi
The seminal form of expression associated with African art is that of the power figure, or nkisi (pl. minkisi). In the West such works are invariably conceived of in generic terms, but Kongo: Power and Majesty
will explore some of the specific historical contexts that led to the
development of such complex works. Following his adoption of
Christianity in 1491, the Kongo sovereign Nzinga a Nkuwu called for the
destruction of all local idols, or minkisi, in his kingdom. At
the same time he and successive generations of Kongo kings requested
that Christian devotional artifacts be sent from Europe. The exhibition
will feature examples of Kongo Christian works that were initially cast
from these prototypes as well as those that eventually reinterpret
Christ according to a Kongo aesthetic. Outside the Kongo capital of
Mbanza Kongo, Christianity was less influential and the creation of minkisi
continued to be a significant dimension of the region’s devotional
life. Although a Portuguese Jesuit Father is reported to have at once
burnt some such “fetishes” and sent others back to Portugal in 1631, no
examples of minkisi are known to have been preserved in the
West before the second half of the 19th century, when massive numbers of
works were gathered through European colonial networks. In recent
decades the work of specialists in the fields of Kongo religion and
anthropology has defined nkisi as a portable shrine designed to house a
spiritual force. Among the important questions addressed in Kongo: Power and Majesty
are why no examples of this tradition were preserved in the West before
the colonial moment; what were the respective contributions of a Kongo
carver and priest to the assemblage of such creations; and what
deliberate interventions altered the condition of certain nkisi before they were released into the outside world.
Kongo Chiefly Attributes of Power
Kongo art is associated with the intimidating and aggressive aesthetic of nkisi
sculptures depicting male subjects riven with hardware. However, such
works were intended to be experienced as part of a far broader spectrum
of representations identified with power and leadership in Kongo
society. Just as prominent a visual metaphor to the definition of Kongo
power is the nurturing and regenerative role of women. Kongo: Power and Majesty
will present the full array of forms that framed the person of a Kongo
leader—from the distinctive regional regalia of knotted fiber capes and
caps studded with leopards’ claws, to staffs of office with finials that
take the form of exquisitely carved ivory miniatures, to the seated
female figures carved from wood that are positioned in shrines above a
Kongo chief’s final resting place.
Kongo Master Hands
Kongo society’s most gifted artists were
in great demand by patrons who required their talents for the production
of a diverse array of forms of expression. While the identities of
individual sculptors have not been documented, their achievements are
known through the surviving artistic record of their creative output
preserved in Western collections. Over the last generation, the work of
art historians has made evident the aesthetic qualities and carving
styles associated with a number of distinctive workshops. These have
been identified according to the sites associated with their
creations. The presentation of Kongo: Power and Majesty
will assemble for the first time the majority of works produced by
three of Central Africa’s most talented master sculptors: the Master of
Kasadi, the Master of Makaya Vista, and the Master of Boma Vonde.
The Ultimate Manifestation of Law and Order: Mangaaka
A catalyst for this exhibition is a great
Kongo landmark that has been a centerpiece of The Metropolitan Museum
of Art’s collection since 2008. This massive sculpture of a formidable
Kongo leader leans forward to confront the viewer with hands on hips. He
is at once a physically commanding and deeply reflexive presence. The
carved wood figure was conceived as the nkisi receptacle for an
immaterial force known as Mangaaka, invoked over the course of its use
through the hardware added to its exterior by petitioners. Over the last
seven years this work has undergone close examination and study in
relation to comparative examples by art historians, conservators, and
scientists. Discussion of these findings with an interdisciplinary
international network of specialists in museums and universities has
contributed to a more nuanced and expansive appreciation of the
significance of this outstanding sculptural achievement.
During the second half of the 19th century, an unprecedented array of minkisi were developed along the coast in response to incursions by colonial traders into the interior and related social concerns. Mangaaka,
the undisputed “king and master” among these, was the personification
of an abstract force charged with the arbitration of trade disputes. As
the supreme adjudicator of conflicts and protector of communities across
the Chiloango River region, it was the most ambitious and monumental
sculptural form developed as a high point in Kongo expression. Mangaaka
features attributes of chieftaincy and a physiognomy that might
obliterate those who defy authority and the rule of law. Its displeasure
was manifested through chest ailments and spitting blood. It likewise
had the power to cure these literally and symbolically acute physical
ailments. Slightly under life-size, the carving of Mangaaka’s figurative
container required the talents and experience of a master sculptor.
Because of the dramatic scale of the representation and the consistency
of the iconography, the Italian art historian Ezio Bassani had at one
time proposed they were the work of a single atelier. Close study of the
corpus, however, has made it evident that they relate to a single genre
but are in fact the work of a number of different artists. This will be
made apparent to an international public for the first time in Kongo: Power and Majesty.
Approximately 20 of these impressive Mangaaka figures survive in
institutional and private collections in Europe and the United States.
The exhibition will provide an unprecedented opportunity to view 15 of
them together, from institutions in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom,
Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States.
Credits and Related Resources
Kongo: Power and Majesty
is organized by Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in
Charge of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the
Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Coordination and support
have been provided by James Green, Research Associate; Christine
Giuntini and Ellen Howe, Conservators; Marco Leona, David H. Koch
Scientist in Charge, and Adriana Rizzo, Associate Research Scientist,
both of the Department of Scientific Research; Helina Gebremedhen and
Remi Onabanjo, graduate interns; and Kristen Windmuller-Luna, graduate
intern and Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow, all of the Metropolitan
Museum. Exhibition design is by Brian Butterfield and Yen-Wei Liu of the
Met’s Design Department.
A major catalogue—published by The
Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press—
accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Alisa LaGamma, John Thornton,
professor of African history, Boston University; Phyllis Martin,
professor emeritus of African history, University of Indiana; and Josiah
Blackmore, professor of the language and literature of Portugal,
Harvard University. The publication incorporates original research
undertaken at the Met by Ellen Howe, Conservator in the Department of
Objects Conservation; Adriana Rizzo and Marco Leona, research
scientists, Department of Scientific Research; and Christine Giuntini,
Textile Conservator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the
Americas.
The catalogue is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Education programs will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition, including a Sunday at the Met on
October 18 at 3:00 p.m. in the Museum’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.
A panel will examine Kongo society’s history and artistic traditions in
the context of changing relations between Africa and Europe over half a
millennium. Featured speakers will be photographic artist Jo Ractliffe,
author David Van Reybrouck, and dancer-choreographer Faustin Linyekula.
This multi-disciplinary Sunday at the Met program will also include a round-table discussion moderated by critically acclaimed journalist and New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch.
The exhibition will also be featured on
the Museum’s website, including a blog that will host weekly posts by a
variety of contributors—designers, scientists, musicians, historians,
and others— offering fresh perspectives on the themes of the exhibition.
Among the topics addressed will be the significance of body language in
Kongo sculpture, exhibition design, scientific analyses undertaken on
Mangaaka power figures, and gender and power dynamics in Kongo art.
# # #
August 17, 2015
Image: Power Figure (Nkisi N’Kondi:
Mangaaka). Kongo peoples; Yombe group, Chiloango River region, Cabinda,
Angola, 19th century, inventoried 1898. Wood, iron, resin, ceramic,
plant fiber, textile, cowrie shell, animal hide and hair, pigment, H.
461⁄2 in. (118 cm), W. 181⁄8 in. (46 cm), D. 133⁄4 in. (35 cm).
Manchester Museum, University of Manchester (0.9321/1)
Saturday, 17 October 2015
Best of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair | London
Daniel Blom | ARTCO Gallery
The white installation space, while maligned by some for its saturation of a certain ideology, is the favoured modus operandi for Blom. He considers the minimal environment perfectly suited to emphasising his raw, austere approach to minimalist sculpture. Materials that can be moulded and manipulated, such as plastic, wood, steel, resin, and fibreglass, accompany Blom’s ideals. Blom is a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in London.
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Works
Sculptures
Daniel Blom is a figurative sculptor and conceptual installation artist who uses the body, its partialized components, and some inanimate objects to translate the concept of order into text and sculpture. As a unit of visceral and conceptual meaning, it is repeated regularly and methodically as a corpus catalogued until meaning is violent and unusual.
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| RETRACETED FIGURE.BLISS, 2012 High density polyethylene, iron particles and steel 181 x 26 x 42 cm |
In the closed and introverted system of the installation space where obsession, compassion, and humour are not contradictory, structures made of high-density polyethylene, wood and steel, function in rooms that strengthen the specific reductive approach of removing all non-essential elements to concentrate on concept, line and mass to get to the rawest and purest form of an austere minimalism. This awareness of abstraction is rooted in context where the process and the titles of the works suggest larger narratives concerned with the ordinary, the uncommon, and the ideas brought to bear.
As the focus is the simplification and intensification of the isolated form, its expression is in structure-based ordered arrangements, iteration, and seriality.
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| THE TOPIC OF CAPRICORN, 2005 Plastic, wood and horn 33 x 212 x 40 cm |
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| WOLF, 2006 Plastic and steel 157 x 50 x 65 cm |
Fowler Musuem at UCLA
Disguise: Masks & Global African Art
October 18, 2015–March 13, 2016
This dynamic exhibition considers the past, present,
and future of disguise - a visual act that can be a mask, a costume, or
simply a camouflage. Disguise features exciting
new works by twelve contemporary artists from Africa and of African
descent who explore the impulse of disguise with optical illusions,
street actions, computer magic, and virtual reality. Together these
works will engage visitors’ imaginations as they consider the art of
masking as a transformative process – one that is informed by a
multiplicity of influences, from historical African masquerade
traditions to contemporary global culture and digital media.
The artists in Disguise use a variety of creative mediums,
including drawings, photographs, videos, masks, sculptures,
performances, and installations to hide identity and reveal issues of
social, political or cultural import. The twelve featured artists are:
Jakob Dwight, Brendan Fernandes, Nandipha Mntambo, Emeka Ogboh,
Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Walter Oltmann, Sondra R. Perry, Zina Saro-Wiwa,
Jacolby Satterwhite, Sam Vernon, William Villalongo, and Saya Woolfalk.
Thelma Golden and Marisa Fick-Jordan
and the more commercial story of Marisa Fick-Jordon from South Africa.
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Ernest Dükü, Akiineh
The Finest Artist in the London
When?: October 14-18th, 2015
Where?: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Somerset House, Strand,
London WC2R 1LA
Where?: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Somerset House, Strand,
London WC2R 1LA
www.ernest-duku.com
www.1-54.com
Ivory Coast painter and sculptor Ernest Dükü was an architect and
designer before dedicating himself exclusively to his readings and
dreams transformed into paintings. It all starts with words, the
mysterious heart of life, to shows things than cannot be written.
In Ernest Düku’s work textures, colours, signs are deeply
intertwined. Traditional Akan signs engage dialogue with Egyptian,
Ethiopian, Caribbean, Christian, Islamic, Jewish symbols to achieve
well-balanced, rhythmic and contemporary results. The “mixture” is the
sum of all the unsaid words we have in our heads and an open invitation
to a peaceful rebirth.
His work constantly questions memory and identity by reading the
post-colonial culture and understanding religion syncretism and history.
It is everywhere in his latest Akiineh series.
© Ernest Dükü
Kurumaawale @ what a wonderful world. 2014
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 44 x 65 cm
Kurumaawale @ what a wonderful world. 2014
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 44 x 65 cm
© Ernest Dükü
Tombé du ciel @ metaphisikawale
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 65 x 44 cm
Tombé du ciel @ metaphisikawale
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 65 x 44 cm
© Ernest Dükü
Seinbolyquement votre. 2013
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 63 x 48 cm
Seinbolyquement votre. 2013
Drawing on creased paper
Format: 63 x 48 cm
Ernest Dükü
(S)ITOR / Sitor Senghor
 | |
| Ernest Dükü | Artist |
Prior to dedicating himself to transmuting dream sequences and readings into textural paintings, Côte d’Ivoire painter and sculptor Ernest Dükü worked as an architect and designer. According to Dükü, producing artwork is an act of unveiling; art exposes a visual language that exceeds words.
Texture, colour, and symbols are deeply interconnected in Düku’s practice. Traditional Akan signs are drawn into dialogue with those of Egyptian, Ethiopian, Caribbean, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish cultures and languages. Düku’s latest series Akiineh, deals directly with questions of memory, identity, the postcolonial socio-cultural condition, and religious syncretism.
AKON on AFRICAN CHARITIES
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Joshua Surtees in Paris
For Akon, the US-based rap star, the realities of living without electricity are a vivid memory from his youth growing up in Kaolack, southern Senegal. Today, 600 million African people still live without access to electricity, and 3.5 million people die each year from inhaling toxic fuels or house fires caused while trying to light their homes. The project Akon Lighting Africa aims to tackle the problem using a different approach to the usual methods of NGOs in Africa.
Akon and his two co-founders, Thione Niang, a Sengalese political activist and Samba Bathily, a Malian entrepreneur and CEO of the solar energy company Solektra International, believe that what rural African communities need is not overseas charity but affordable renewable energy delivered by fully trained African professionals managing for-profit projects that bring longevity, generate jobs and build new self-sustaining economies. They think this initiative could mark the beginning of an African energy renaissance in which the continent becomes the focal point of a global solar power industry.
For Akon, this second venture into development (he also founded Konfidence, a health and education charity) has been an eye-opener. “There have been a lot of issues and challenges that I honestly wasn’t aware of until I got involved,” says the 42-year-old rapper, who has just completed a Canadian tour and spent the summer on a roadshow with Bathily and Niang that took him from the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, through Rwanda, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria and Niger, culminating at the coastal city of Cotonou, Benin, where they inspected Akon Lighting Africa’s projects.
“One thing I’ve realised about Africa is that only the organisations that involve Africans themselves are successful. A lot of corporations that come with their own policies and try and implement them in Africa fail horribly. The advantage we had is that all three founders are African, so we were able to navigate through each country a lot faster.”
Niang and Bathily bring political and economic skills to the project, while Akon admits that his main contribution is his name and the marketing opportunities it brings.
The founders have already made deals with the governments of 16 African states and aim to be operating in 25 by the end of next year. The deals are pre-financed using a $1bn credit line funded by international partners, including China Jiangsu International Group, and distributed by the pan-African bank Ecobank. A Chinese manufacturer supplies the solar panels but, crucially, the workers are predominantly African. The pre-financing set-up means that Solektra International can begin the engineering work straight away, giving villagers immediate electricity. Repayment plans are worked out with individual governments on a case-by-case basis.
The deals are delivering three types of solutions for people without
electricity: 100,000 street lamps are being installed in villages; 1,000
solar micro-generators will act as clean energy hubs for communities,
replacing old generators that used fossil fuels; and 200,000 household
solar electric systems - including devices that store energy to provide
LED panel lighting at night and pocket-sized solar gadgets that charge
phones and tablets - will be sold at affordable prices to families,
subsidised by each African government or local authority. It is a
for-profit business, with Solektra negotiating rates with each
government to meet affordability targets and with payments structured to
ease burdens on national budgets.
“Personally, I don’t think that charities in Africa really work,” says Akon. “I think it just holds the people down longer than it should. I think the only way to build Africa is to build for-profit businesses that create opportunities and jobs for the people locally. That’s why with Akon Lighting Africa we decided to take a for-profit approach. Ultimately, it’s providing empowerment to local people so they can start developing their own economies.”
To that end, the organisation is a month away from launching an academy in Bamako, Mali where young people will train in construction, engineering, clerical work and project management.
“When we launched we sent 20 young people from 10 African countries to university in Marrakech with a scholarship fund to complete the engineering programme and then come back and work for us,” says Niang. “But we then realised this was bigger than that so we set up the academy in Mali.”
However, the project is not entirely bypassing NGOs. Niang’s non-profit Give1Project specialises in mentoring social entrepreneurs and has been key in mobilising young, enthusiastic recruits who carry out the legwork and receive valuable training and employment in return.
“What happens usually is that when people come to do business in Africa, they bring the expertise with them but they also bring the workers, and once they’re done they’re gone,” says Niang. “That’s why many cities in Africa have a lot of solar lights but after three years none of them work and nobody is there to maintain them. So we thought it was important to train the young Africans in the local areas. And it’s important to give jobs to young people.”
Their efforts have been well received by governments seeking greater energy access but struggling to find reliable partners. Akon Lighting Africa holds direct meetings with the countries’ leaders, then with the energy ministers, then with finance ministers and then they set up pilot projects before discussions about increasing scale.
Akon Lighting Africa focuses on rural areas because that’s where the need is greatest. “If you want to make an impact start there,” Akon says. “My thinking is if you want to build Africa, you start from the rural areas because that is the heartbeat of Africa.”
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. Join the conversation with the hashtag #EnergyAccess.
“Personally, I don’t think that charities in Africa really work,” says Akon. “I think it just holds the people down longer than it should. I think the only way to build Africa is to build for-profit businesses that create opportunities and jobs for the people locally. That’s why with Akon Lighting Africa we decided to take a for-profit approach. Ultimately, it’s providing empowerment to local people so they can start developing their own economies.”
To that end, the organisation is a month away from launching an academy in Bamako, Mali where young people will train in construction, engineering, clerical work and project management.
“When we launched we sent 20 young people from 10 African countries to university in Marrakech with a scholarship fund to complete the engineering programme and then come back and work for us,” says Niang. “But we then realised this was bigger than that so we set up the academy in Mali.”
However, the project is not entirely bypassing NGOs. Niang’s non-profit Give1Project specialises in mentoring social entrepreneurs and has been key in mobilising young, enthusiastic recruits who carry out the legwork and receive valuable training and employment in return.
“What happens usually is that when people come to do business in Africa, they bring the expertise with them but they also bring the workers, and once they’re done they’re gone,” says Niang. “That’s why many cities in Africa have a lot of solar lights but after three years none of them work and nobody is there to maintain them. So we thought it was important to train the young Africans in the local areas. And it’s important to give jobs to young people.”
Their efforts have been well received by governments seeking greater energy access but struggling to find reliable partners. Akon Lighting Africa holds direct meetings with the countries’ leaders, then with the energy ministers, then with finance ministers and then they set up pilot projects before discussions about increasing scale.
Akon Lighting Africa focuses on rural areas because that’s where the need is greatest. “If you want to make an impact start there,” Akon says. “My thinking is if you want to build Africa, you start from the rural areas because that is the heartbeat of Africa.”
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. Join the conversation with the hashtag #EnergyAccess.
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