Content provided in partnership with

Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta

African Arts, Autumn, 2003 by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie

<< Page 1 Continued from page 5. Previous | Next

There is also a need to redefine the objects of study appropriate to representations of African cultures in this new century, as the canonical objects become increasingly scarce and commodified. This action is imperative because of capitalism's appetite for new commodities and because of the dictates of our own discipline as art historians who chronicle the changing conventions of cultural practice in African societies. As the "classical" objects get canonized, (7) the field, still mired in its focus on a specific historical period (defined as "precolonial"), turns to artworks of more questionable provenance and less artistic skill.

Most Popular Articles in Reference: The importance of understanding organizational culture; Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students; What factors attract foreign direct investment?; Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...; How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques; More »

We could see this problem in "Ways of the Rivers." Some sculptures were clearly of interior workmanship, something we can criticize without getting bogged down in arguments about the ideological implications of the word "quality." Expert workmanship or artistic skill (what the Igbo call Ikwa-Nka and whose adepts they call DiNka) is widely recognized in Niger Delta societies. It extends to constructing headdresses, arranging the layout of textiles in funerary installations, dancing, and producing sculpture intended for use as masquerades, power figures, secular items, and so on. Assured handling of materials and methods was clearly lacking in some of the artworks in the exhibition. (8)

These questions also affect the inclusion of two prominent contemporary Niger Delta artists: Bruce Onobrakpeya, based in Nigeria, and Sokari Douglas Camp, who has lived in London now for more than three decades. Two plastograph etchings and an installation, Akporode (1995, from the Royal Academy's Africa 95 exhibition in London), reflected Onobrakpeya's advancement from printmaking to three-dimensional work. Akporode deploys the logic of actual African shrines in that its parts were accumulated from objects produced in different periods of Onobrakpeya's career. It thus serves the artist as an archive of memory that is in many ways similar to the archival intent of a real shrine. Sokari Douglas Camp was represented by rather weak examples of her signature metal masquerades (except for Green Alagba, 1995). In any case, the contemporary art section appeared tacked on to the entire program. The modernist impulse in both artists' works may reference traditional art or construct narratives of artistic identity based on their Delta origins, but it is nevertheless directed toward different goals. There is no serious explanation of the conceptual transformations involved in these artists' contemporary practice in the exhibition catalogue, although Anderson provides a brief note on their work (p. 330).

This exhibition faltered on the issue of visual display. Niger Delta cultures deploy some of the most colorful costumes and art for daily use in all of Africa. Yet, the installation's walls and mounts were in a gray tone that bled into the objects, thus giving the entire tableau a rather somber look. Although one got a glimpse of the colorful nature of quotidian reality in the Niger Delta from the video documentaries, a couple of large pictures showing people in vividly hued clothing would have done the trick. The catalogue abounded in these kinds of pictures, which made it all the more disappointing that they were not considered for the exhibition's installation format.

Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment of the Niger Delta

African Arts, Autumn, 2003 by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Reference

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference