designer Ousmane M ’Baye conjures beauty
from environmental wreckage; he built an
exuberant kitchen cabinet using old oil
drums. Likewise, Gonfalo Mabunda of
Mozambique made a chair by welding
deactivated weapons.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, there are
orphan pieces of mosaic art and graphic
design, not to mention an irrelevant
(though beguiling) Robert Mapplethorpe
photograph of Grace Jones. Sure, the over-
all effect of the show is chaos, but perhaps
that’s the point: African influences are now
so widely dispersed it’s impossible to pin-
point a single aesthetic from such a vast
continent. A t its best, though, “Global Afri-
ca” is more linear than that; certain pairings
help the viewer to draw correlations, to see
the common African root of this tangle.
+
Christy D e Smith is a freelance arts
writer in Boston.
Right:
Gee’s Bend Quilters
(Mary Lee Bendolph)
Blocks-and-Stripes
Quilt,
date unknown;
wool, cotton, corduroy
6.25 x 6.25 ft.
Far right:
Gone; alo Mabunda
The Hope Throne,
2008
deactivated welded
weapons, leather
4.4 x 4.2 x 3.1 ft.
Left:
Victor Ekpuk
A ll Fingers Are
Not Equal,
2008
pigment print
and acrylic
ink on paper
4.3 x3.6 ft.
inspired groupings, viewers can appreciate
the similarities between the
gele
headwraps
of West Africa and the sculptural hats of
Evetta Petty, owner of Harlem’s Heaven
Hat Boutique. They can compare the
sophisticated minimalism of Alabama’s
Gee’s Bend quilters to the improvisational
quilts of the Siddi, an ethnic group descend-
ed from East Africans who arrived in India
as slaves, servants, and soldiers. They can
see how South Carolina-based Mary A.
Jackson seeks to preserve the sweetgrass
basketry of her ancestors, while Jackson’s
South African counterparts toy with P V C-
coated telephone wire to make colorful
objects such as butterfly wall sculptures
and bulbous flower planters.
“The Global Africa Project” also
explores cultural hybrids, the marrying
of African artistic conventions with those
from other continents. One example is
Serge Mouangue’s
Blood Brothers,
a trio
of stools depicting squat men. Vaguely
reminiscent of extraterrestrials, these
playful figures are carved in the style of
the Bamileke tribe from Cameroon,
Mouangue’s homeland. Now that the artist
lives in Japan, he has been inspired to add
Asian flourishes: He bathed
Blood Brothers
in the reddish sap of the Japanese lacquer
tree and constructed a kimono with fabric
from the Dutch company Vlisco, whose
prints are popular throughout Africa.
Meanwhile, the show’s survey of mod-
ern design goes further than deflecting
stereotype; it also reflects how crafts-
people, living in Africa or part of the dias-
pora, mix modernism with traditional
forms, especially in the realm of furniture.
Several artisans riffed on West Africa’s low
wooden stools and dining tables, only their
versions use metal, glass, and recycled plas-
tics. For other artists, modern design is a
means of political expression. Senegalese
Above:
Ousmane M’Baye
Meublede Cuisine,
2009
galvanized metal,
barrel lid
3.2 x4.6 x2 ft.
apr/may 11 american craft 033
Photo: Courtesy of Galerie Perimeter, Paris
