As It Is! Contemporary African Art Comes to Dubai

International Tue 18-01-2011

As It Is! Contemporary African Art Comes to Dubai
Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

For years, parts of South Africa felt like an extension of Europe. South Africans skipped ‘Efrica’ and landed straight in Britain, the Netherlands or elsewhere, whether physically or psychologically. Africans north of the Limpopo looked – and still look – to their former colonial headquarters in Britain, France and Portugal (and, to a lesser extent, Spain and Italy) for education, careers, health, holidays.

Prelude to Micron No 13 by Owusu Ankomah |

'Prelude to Micron No. 13' by Owusu Ankomah | Images: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

The link to India has never seemed as prestigious, despite its proximity, and the size and impact of the Indian diaspora in swathes of Africa.

On the continent and nearby are another heritage and neighbour that could lead to significant interchange. Desert, camels, artists in exile (Palestine, Iran; Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Sudan), whether political or pragmatic, are points in common between Africa and the so-called Middle East, as are Islam, the highly defined – though changing – roles of men and women, Arabic culture and trade. All this despite the likely break-up of Sudan.

My original mission in Dubai was to find north African art, for the most obvious cultural overlap and geographic closeness. Warehouses and other industrial spaces – even former film studios – lend themselves well to being reborn as art venues, as Nairobi, Mumbai and other cities have proven. So, having read that the Al Quoz Industrial Zone houses a few galleries, I headed out there.

Untitled by Owusu Ankomah | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

I did find artists in exile.

But I also came across The Mojo Gallery and met Annabelle Nwankwo-Mu’azu, a Nigerian-born, London-based freelance curator who was invited to Art Dubai two years ago. The objective of her current contemporary African art exhibition series ‘As It Is!’ is “to fill a cultural void” and the first phase in December, which included photographs from the 2010 World Cup, was well received. Most galleries in Dubai focus on Iranian and Arabic/Middle Eastern art; contemporary African art is still “marginalised” according to Annabelle (October Gallery was the only one in which sub-Saharan African art was represented, and then only through a couple of pieces). People in the Middle East have little understanding of life in Africa beyond the media, a perspective she wanted to change. ‘Africa Uploaded: Experiences Through the Lens’ allowed the audience to see a different side of the continent, such as the fashion. Two of the photographers, Anthony Kaminju from Kenya and Uganda’s Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, ran a masterclass.

Micron No. 10, 2010 by Owusu Ankomah | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

‘Ancestral Space: Translated Identities’, which opened this month, showcases paintings and sculptures. Tola Wewe makes a statement to artists who lament that they cannot afford materials. “You can use [what is] around you,” he states. In his case he has returned to nature through his terracotta and charcoal ‘paintings’, bypassing the need for manufactured paints. The motifs and shapes reminded me of Dogon doors. He cuts through the clay – which costs him nothing – while it is still wet, making it look broken. Tola likes Kehinde Ken Adewuyi’s bronze figures with their distorted, exaggerated legs and finely-sculpted faces. ‘Tenth Month’ (2002), a depiction of a seemingly pregnant woman, reminds me of a documentary set in Qom (Iran), where people decided a young unmarried woman, whose stomach was expanding, was pregnant. In their attempt to abort the ‘baby’, they put hot stones on her belly. Eleven months later, she had not delivered and her disease was finally diagnosed… No ‘Dignity of Labour’ (2002), Kenny’s kneeling figure, for her. I felt the pathos in ‘But Why?’ (2002), not only because of the curved-back stance of the person, leaning on one arm, the other across his lap, but also because of the film I had recalled.

Dignity of Labour, Sculpture by Kehinde Ken | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

The muscular bodies in Owusu-Ankomah’s contrasting ‘The Innocent’ (2005), yearning for sympathy like ‘But Why?’, and ‘The Protest’ (2007) look as if they are stepping out of their background. The canvas resembles cloth, as does the background in Momodou Ceesay’s watercolours, the most powerful of which, ‘Rwanda’, with its seeping red paint, dates back to the time of genocide. Ceesay’s ‘Cosmic Consciousness’ (2010) blends in with Owusu-Ankomah’s Microcon series.

Being a contemporary African artist is not without its challenges, but also its openings.

There are artists who do not want to be associated with their geographical origins, but Annabelle’s view is that there is an opportunity to celebrate one’s roots through art – and to educate people. As she points out, African ‘artists’ have been producing installations for thousands of years – before the term was coined. Art is a continuum.

Teracotta Pantings, Folktales 2010 by Tola Wewe | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

Teracotta Pantings Folktales, 2010 by Tola Wewe | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

Tola is adamant that artists need to get engaged, for example through cultural tourism, as they – and sportspeople – are respected. As commissioner in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for Ondo State, he is doing just that. On the other hand, Momodou Ceesay, according to Annabelle, went through a commercial phase before finding his roots again.

Pélagie Gbaguidi, of Béninois origin, is an example of an artist who lives outside Africa because it is easier to travel. So much funding for the arts in Africa or for Africans still comes from Europe. (Though links with the West are not without their risks.

According to Tola, a gallery in the US exhibited his works, but also copies of his originals, passed off as if he was the artist!) Reading Professor Wole Soyinka’s introduction to the Ancestral Space catalogue, I realised I was not alone in pointing out the link between Africa and Europe and the absence of Africa/Middle East collaboration. Yet Leopold Sédar Senghor, he writes, “was the earliest to recognize and articulate the need for a black African linkage to that cultural repository that he named Arabite.”

Teracotta Paintings, Twins 2010 by Tola Wewe | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

Teracotta Paintings Twins, 2010 by Tola Wewe | Image: Aarti wa Njoroge | AfricanColours.com

Annabelle would like contemporary African art to have at least a bi-annual, if not annual, presence in Dubai. Given the diversity of the attendees at the opening of ‘Ancestral Space’, including two lawyers of Nigerian origin from the US, living in the UAE, other expatriates and a few locals, this could well be possible.
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Ancestral Space: Translated Identities runs from 12-31 January at The Mojo Gallery, Al Serkal Avenue, no 33, 8th Street, Al Quoz, Dubai.

Featured Artists

K Kenny Adewuyi, sculptor, Nigeria
Owusu-Ankomah, painter, Ghana
Momodou Ceesay, painter and printmaker, Gambia
Pélagie Gbaguidi, painter and installation, Benin
Tola Wewe, painter, Nigeria

Posted By: Hirum Ndungu

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