Body of Evidence.

Body of Evidence

National Museum of African Art, Washington DC

June 14, 2006-December 2, 2007

The exhibition "Body of Evidence" held at the National Museum of African Art from 2006-2007 was an exercise in body politics. It featured the work of twenty-five contemporary African artists from eight countries. The human form, in many instances, served as a metaphor for various states of the human condition from the political to the metaphysical. The works on display were not easily read. Folded within the paintings, mixed media sculpture, installations, and video were layers of data. Conceptual tendencies dominated by modernist sensibilities were merely points of departure.

The works were by and large made before 2001 and are part of the Museum's permanent collection. The intent of the presentation was to construct a visual expose of global trends prevalent in contemporary African art. More than half of the artists represented were from South Africa; therefore, post-apartheid sentiments prevailed. The body served as a site of transference alluding to historical moments. A poignant snapshot of a country in the throes of change was given through Willie Bester's bricolage, the allegorical work of William Kentridge, the video montage of Sue Williamson, and the monumental collages of Kay Hassan and Garth Hassan.

Upon entering the cavernous Sylvia H. Williams gallery, one saw the video of Georgia Papageorge presented in an enclave. Papa-george's video of sinuous landmasses and bellowing crimson fabrics was reflective and provoked meditation. Depending on the rotation, at the entrance of the main gallery were black-and-white prints from the films Ubu Tells the Truth (1997) and Mine (1991) by William Kentridge or Fodd Camara's painting, with the monolithic sculpture of Mickael Bethe-Selassie on the adjacent wall. Acculturation (2000) by Fode (Fig. 1) is an exploration in the rudiments of abstraction: the rendering of the central figure(s) is executed in bold primary and secondary colors, the arms are akimbo, and a sheet of paper conceals the face. One can not discern whether the figure is male, female, or both. The background is broken up into large rectangular areas of color; a broken yellow ochre and burnt orange horizontal ledge divides the picture plane. Is the figure located in a classroom? There is an ambiguity to the work and the title Acculturation seems to systemically embody this process.

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Bethe-Selassie's' Megalithe (1991) is a large, undulating papier mache sculpture populated with naive figurative reliefs over the surface. The top of the work converges into a crowned head with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. Selassigs work is reminiscent of many visionary artists who reduce the human form to a common denominator, simplistic and raw. His brilliant palette evokes the fantastic; however, one is awe-struck by the unusual shape and power of the work.

Apropos to the political agendas addressed in the exhibition by artists from South Africa was Hidden Pages/Stolen Bodies (2001) by Antonio Ole, who gives voice to the multiple dynamics shaping contemporary Angola. Through text image, installations, and video, Ole constructs a visual tableau of the history of colonialism in Angola. Compiling copies of documents from Benguela, a Portuguese port town integral to the slave trade between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, using postcard images and discarded materials such as rusted bowls, Ole's eight-paneled section of Hidden Pages/Stolen Bodies required close scrutiny. One was compelled to read each document, and mounted centrally on each panel was the ultimate poster image of slavery, a bound male torso. Riveting and on some level didactic, the piece probes the horrors of human bondage, bringing to light in the twenty-first century what lies hidden within a colonial past.

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Ouattara Watts' Ka Cabala (1995; Fig. 2) is representative of his painting oeuvre of the mid 1990s. Prominent in Ka Cabala is the image of a leopard, a symbol of power and prowlness which is painted in outline on wooden plaque that includes the words "Ka Cabala/Voodoo." Perhaps Watts intends to convey the synergy between mystical practices inherent in Juda ism and West African or Haitian religions. The massive work is covered with a highly textured earthen red paint. White forms hover at the edges of this painting, with a distinctive red and white papal hood placed on its upper corners. A cross is painted in white on the left hood and red on the right. If the reference is to Christianity, do the hoods represent Catholicism or the KKK? His works intuitively and spontaneously paints from the center of his canvases out. Watts's meanings are illusive; he uses loaded signs, symbols, and emblems that provide insight into his psyche. One can ascertain their multiple readings given an understanding of his transatlantic experiences. Watts was born in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire, and was influenced by his training within the indigenous Senufo religion. He studied at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris and later took up residence in New York City at the prodding of lean Michel Basquait. Watts constructs his own unique cosmological system, through which he filters cross-cultural lived experiences and reflections on the juxtaposition of modernism and traditional practices.

Aida Mulaneh was one artist in the show who dealt directly with the figure. Spirit Sisterhood (2000; Fig. 3) is an idealized rendition of two young women. The aura, created by backlighting, that surrounds the girls adds a sense of drama and otherworldliness. She elicits the feel of mystery and chastity, qualities particular to the Islamic burqa, by draping the heads and faces of her young subjects with a dark sheer veil. Cab Ride (1999) is a contemporary scene of young women conversing while riding in a taxi through town. One was reminded of Nan Goldin's candid shots of quotidian activities. As in Goldin's work, there is a feeling of the grit of urban culture. Mulaneh was one of the youngest artists in the exhibit, and she is at her best photographing women using black-and-white photography to convey complicated ontological states.

Two works by El Anatsui are particularly worthy of mention. We were presented with a range of styles, from pieces of drift wood in Ancestors Converge (1995) to his current passion, making cloth-like sheaths from recycled liquor bottle caps, cans, and miscellaneous aluminum and copper materials. Nukae I (2006) of the Gawa series, causally displayed, completes its function as a trompe l'oiel. It appears at first glance to be a large shimmering fabric piece. This emblazoned work embodies the concept of transformation, as well as referencing tradition weaving practice prevalent in Ghana and Nigeria.

"Body of Evidence" was a survey exhibition for which the body served as a connecting factor on some level. What is captured, however, is a diversity of aesthetic sensibilities. Indeed, there is "evidence" of intersection between the political and metaphysical via the body, but so much more can be gleaned from this honored roster of who's who in contemporary African art. Here, an aesthetic of difference, an attribute assigned to postmodernism, was clearly at work. Video installations, photography, and mixed media paintings and sculptures conveyed heterogeneous realities particular to various regions of West, East, and South Africa and global phenomena in general.

A.M. WEAVER is a curator and writer who resides in Philadelphia. [e-mail]