Waterloo Center of The Arts

     When I went to the Waterloo Center of The Arts I wasn't sure what kind of Haitian art I would see I was a little surprised with certain things and excited to see others. Ever since I saw the Drapo they quickly became what I thought an interesting piece of African Art. Drapo are sequenced flags that have symbols or imagery on them that tell a story or have some kind of meaning. They have been employed in the service of Vodou  worship to announce religious affiliation and spiritual militancy in devotion to deities. The Drapo were influenced by the banners of the Fon Kings of Dahomey. They also borrowed from the ways that the European colonial masters used flags and banners. Many of the contemporary flags are made of satin, velvet, or rayon and are often adorned with beads or sequence. As embodiments of spirit they incorporate the colors and symbols of the deity. One particular Drapo that caught my eye was one that was similar to the one that was in our History of Arts in Africa book. This particular Drapo is organized around a graphic emblem called a veve, a ritual drawing created on the ground to evoke the lwa. The central point of the crossing lines indicates the crossroads where the spiritual and physical worlds intersect, and where the spirit arrives when invoked through ritual. The snakes depicted on this Drapo refer to Danbala, a deity associated with water, coolness, and wisdom. The heart refers to Ezili Freda, a female deity associated with with love and affairs of the heart. The circular form refers to Simbi, a water deity associated with healing. Campaigns to suppress the practice of vodou led to maintain it behind Catholicism. Relating the imagery on the Drapo to Catholic saints to make it seem better than it really was.

     Other things I saw where many Mama Wata sculptures, paintings, and banners. Mama Wata is a water spirit and is often portrayed as a mermaid. She represents a "free" unencumbered spirit of nature detached from any social bonds. She is more broadly identified with Europeans rather than any African ethnic group. Although her name Mama refers to mother she has no children or family of any kind. Substantial evidence suggests that the concept of Mama Wata has its origins in the very first encounters of Africans and Europeans in the 15th century. The first representations were probably derived from European sailors' lore about mermaids or from marine sculptures and ships' figureheads.

     All in all going to the Waterloo Center of The Arts was a great learning experience and to actually see some of the things we had talked about in class and everything just seemed to come alive for me I will definitely be going back in the future to explore different things.


                       Bethany <><

Why?

     When we discussed the articles in the groups it was interesting how everyone thought about the different articles, the quotes they chose, and why they chose them.

The Swing by Yinka Shonibare

  What is "authentic"art? that was one of the questions asked in my group. It really made me think about how what we perceive as "authentic" is the traditional African art. So if we went to Africa what kind of art would they consider "authentic" of us. Another dilemma that comes up is how we think that because they're African that naturally they should create African art. I was reading the article "Yinka Shonibare: Hedonism, masquerade, Carnivalesque, and Power" and this section really caught my attention it says, “I think it was during my art school education that I realized I was not going to be allowed to be a universal, anonymous artist, if there is such a thing; but that was my utopian view. It was quite a revelation because I realized that regardless of my internal thoughts, the way I was perceived on the outside was different. I also realized that I was in a double bind. If I made work about being black, I would be considered simply an artist who made work about blackness; if I did not make work about being black, people would speak of me as a black artist who did not make work about blackness.” So basically because he's an African artist, people expect him to make the "authentic traditional art" that we think of when we think about Africa.

     In the Olu Oguibe article I read that, “Until recently works of classical African arts were dutifully attributed to the “tribe”, rather than to the individual artist, thus effectively erasing the latter from the narrative spaces of art history.” I think that's very sad to create something and then to have people recognize it as artwork created by a specific people group. Denying the identities of artists in being identified with the collective, anonymous production pattern that inscribes primitivism. So the questions I have are: What is "Authentic" art? and the general question of Why? Why shouldn’t African artists be able to make any art they want? Why do people expect them to make strictly "traditional" African art? Why are African artists not being recognized individually for the art they create?




                  Bethany <><