Voices of the African Diaspora Make Themselves Heard in Bristol

International Sun 04-01-2009

Voices of the African Diaspora Make Themselves Heard in Bristol
By Jenni Oconnor

A showcase of contemporary artwork by eight emerging and established African, African-Caribbean and American artists made itself seen, heard and above all listened to in the heart of the UK’s south-west between September and Christmas last year.

Bristol, with its dubious history of involvement in the slave trade and consequent self-enrichment, has been making a concerted effort to lay the past to rest and make amends, not least with exhibitions of this sort. I say ‘of this sort’ as it’s not the first time the city has brought together the creative fruits of subsequent generations from the African diaspora, exploring not only the artistic legacy of Africa itself, but that of its sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, and now its great-great-great (and even greater) grandchildren.

British Empire & Commonwelth Museum in Bristol, UK

The location of the UK’s only Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol bears testimony to this, along with previous exhibitions including Mozambique’s ‘Throne of Weapons’ and ‘Making Sense: a Rwandan story’; a commemoration of the massacres in Rwanda by Helen Wilson.

This legacy is also explored in popular culture, with a Caribbean carnival in July – and the very existence of a ‘legacy commission’ in the city testifies to Bristol’s efforts to remember that its graceful public buildings and beautiful Georgian terraces were built with the gains of the cruellest trade of all.

‘Voices’ brought together ceramics, painting, sculpture, photography and video, speaking (in the widest sense of the word) eloquently and powerfully on the universal themes of relationships and love, and the more specific ones of politics and immigration.

Life through texture and textiles

Two of the artists at ‘Voices’ reflected on life and their own heritage through the medium of textiles. Bristol-based artist Gloria Ajulare Sole traced her journey as a black British woman back to Africa where she explored her birthright through a video of the making of a piece of traditional embroidery in Dakar; the cloth taking on the symbolic life of the city, its culture and history.

Sticking to the clothing theme, Lisa Amparbeng (who teaches art and design in Bristol), explored the role of fashion among African women from times of slavery to the present. Her triptych ‘A slave to fashion’ depicted three women in different stages of both history and emancipation. In this way she believes that a simple yet symbolic piece of apparel, such as the African headscarf, can become part of the healing process as well as both a practical and decorative item of clothing.

A political message

Meanwhile, Angolan-born Helga Gamboa’s more obviously politically-driven installation ‘The Three C's’ represented Christianity, colonialism and civil war, consisting of 35 mass-produced plates, transfer printed with images of guns and land mine victims, assembled to create a cross.

The use of these factory objects refers to industrialisation in Europe, while also linking to colonialism and the globalisation of western culture. Meanwhile, her pottery continued the same themes, with items including bowls studded with bullets instead of jewels, and nails from landmines. Gamboa is currently studying for a PhD in ceramics and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.

Similarly, Trinidadian-educated Bandele Iyapo presented a politically-motivated montage of texts and images with scenes from African history and the slave trade from the last 500 years, as well as an inspired centre-piece sculpture called ‘Yesterday and Today’, featuring symbolic African and Caribbean figures such as the keeper of the calabash and the music man. Visitors were treated to a different ‘face of Africa’ as they walked round the installation.

Having come to the UK in 1988 with an Amnesty International exhibition tour, he now works in Bristol in the varied fields of documentary-making, textiles and photography.

Desert close up by Maria Onyegbule

The personal touch

Two of the artists explored more personal, individual themes. Glenn Jordan’s touching and insightful series of mother and daughter photographs, including his own, a doctor and her daughter from Bangalore, and an African mother and daughter pairing, emphasizes the collectiveness of human experience and the love that can bind family relationships. The project also displayed the diversity of people living in Wales (born in Sacramento, California, Jordan is the director of the Butetown History and Arts Centre in Cardiff and a Reader in Cultural Studies at the University of Glamorgan).

He set out to challenge stereotyped notions of 'Welshness', and his photographs highlight human relationships through body language and expression, and their personal stories contain journeys through both time (their lives) and space (as they move to Wales from elsewhere).

With equally personal insight and intuition, Maria Onyegbule (born in Birmingham to an Italian mother and African father), works in both representational and abstract traditions, using texture, pattern and the colour of the African environment. Her work, beautiful in its vibrancy, quiet intimacy and deceptive simplicity, records her experiences in North and West Africa (Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali).

It reflects on her own mixed heritage and conveys the diversity of African culture as she explores subjects including a Muslim boy at prayer, a celebration, and the daily ritual of two men pouring mint tea in North Africa. Onyegbule recently completed a residency at the Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art in Nairobi called – and sponsored by – African Colours.

Looking back on tradition through modern eyes

The last three artists in the exhibition focused on the interaction between modern black culture and its African roots. Black Bristolian Graeme Mortimer Evelyn exhibited a carving on acrylic entitled ‘Soirée du Coeur’; a retro black and white piece in which religious imagery melds with images of prostitutes, a ‘goat man’, a dancer and a woman in tears. The faces, all from the artist’s local area of St Pauls in Bristol, are reversed in colour, like black and white masks, in a modern narrative of society, culture, politics and language. His other piece at ‘Voices’ was ‘The Lord’s Lieutenant’; a mind within a machine, with cogs turning but no heart. His influences include comic book narratives, German expressionism, Japanese print, graffiti street art, voodoo and Judeo-Christian iconography, as well as Buddhist philosophy, advertising techniques and the languages and colours of the Caribbean and South America.

Wedding celebrations by Maria Onyegbule

Meanwhile, Mo Ouammi, a Moroccan artist who has spent time in Germany, uses abstracts to convey a powerful message about the importance of knowing one’s origins, with a special focus on using art to build community relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims. Using a blend of paint, collage, carbon-friendly 'wood painting' and Islamic calligraphy, he imbues harsh post-modern industrial landscapes with African light and colour, and explores the relationship between the city, the desert and the sea.

Finally, Mark Caroll, born to Jamaican parents in Britain, has travelled to Jamaica and Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) in search of his roots. The strong symbolic language in his work is drawn from his experiences in Africa and the Caribbean and his identification with the people there. Mark was inspired by the resilience of the people he met and these experiences had a profound and lasting effect on him.

Through his art Caroll seeks to combine emotions which can be both painful and enjoyable. All this and more is symbolized in his stylized paintings at ‘Voices’, depicting a modern black child standing amidst African cloths, masks, hunters and traditional huts, in the original journey of the mind; and in ‘Volcano’, showing a faceless woman carrying a child to safety through the flames.

Displayed in a relatively small gallery at Bristol’s City Museum, the ‘Voices’ filled visitors’ eyes, ears and hearts with the beauty, power and diversity of their respective messages.

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