Craft Unbound » South Africa

Where to put baskets in an art gallery?

Kevin Murray — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:16:36 +0000

Announcing an upcoming panel session:

The place of collective craft in the modern museums and art galleries of the Global South

This panel session is part of the conference:

Mobility, Circulation, Transnationalism: Art History and the Global South
South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH) and Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA)
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in January 2011

Museums and art galleries in the Global South are challenged by the existence of active traditional craft collectives.

Conventional Western approaches to art history focus on individual creativity. The individual artist is seen as the ultimate site for development of new art forms. While inspiration might be drawn from collective traditions, such as Picasso’s experience of African masks, the ultimate end of analysis is the product realised by an individual. This can be seen as part of a cultural economy that deals in a currency of genius, intellectual property and originality. The colonial process entails the extension of this economy into alternative systems where culture is more a matter of collective meaning and ancestral authority.

Such methodologies have a home in the trans-Atlantic North, where traditional cultures are rarely found outside of the modernist lens. In the Global South, however, there is sometimes a bifocal arrangement where modernity co-exists with collective systems.

Compared to visual arts, craft practice depends more on the reproduction of traditional skills than individual originality. In the North, much contemporary craft has been assimilated into modernity through the introduction of studio practice. In the South, craft is still practiced in communities where it is grounded in collective identities, such as village, tribe, caste or guild.

If art history in the Global South is to reflect the nature of its democracies, then methodologies need to be adopted that account for art that has been forged through collective agencies, where it would be inappropriate to single out an individual as the sole representative. This could be seen to apply to forms such as telephone wire-weaving in South Africa, ‘tjanpi’ sculptures in the Western Desert of Australia, tapa cloths from the Pacific, Pattamadai mat weavers in India, Relmu Witral weavers in Chile. How can these collective art forms be incorporated into a history of art in the Global South?

Some of the issues this raises include:

How can innovation be accounted for within a collective practice?
To what extent can Western institutions such as art galleries accommodate collective art forms such as village crafts?
Are there productive ways in which individual artists can collaborate with traditional communities?
How can what might be considered a traditional art form be given a diachronic reading through art history?
How might individuals that emerge from collective settings to be granted status as ‘living treasures’, ‘masters of their craft’, or ‘artists in their own right’?
How to traditional Indigenous crafts compared to hobby circles in the Global North?

This discussion is relevant to those working across the broader South, including African tribal arts, Asian programs for upliftment of traditional crafts, Oceanic models for dealing with traditional knowledge and Latin American forms of engagement with the so called ‘pre-Colombian’ cultures. This also extends to the representation of these in institutions situated in the Global North.

Issues at play here connect closely with existing forums such as Journal of Modern Craft, Craft & Design Enquiry and Southern Perspectives.

For further information about this panel, contact Kevin Murray (kevin(at)craftunbound.net)

Proposals for conference papers should be sent to the Chairperson of SAVAH, Dr Federico Freschi (federico.freschi(at)its.ac.za).

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Hlengiwe Dube – tin top buttons with Zulu style

Kevin Murray — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:41:54 +0000

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Hlengiwe Dube is a craftswoman and manager of the African Art Centre. In 2000, she was awarded the Woman of the Year award by the Department of Arts and Culture. As well as her own work, she has played a critical role in developing crafters in the area, particularly in beaded products. Dube has travelled widely to promote Zulu crafts, including participation in the South Project and the Common Goods exhibition by Craft Victoria. She has recently written Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads (Africa Direct).

Remarkably, Hlengiwe manages to sustain both her own work as a skilled crafter with a vocation for promoting Zulu crafts as a whole. She has a firm belief in self-reliance through craftwork and the richness of Zulu tradition. These combine in her recent products for beaded cell phone pouches and handbags ornamented with tin top buttons.

Craft is the third largest employer in the South African economy. For most poor people, is the only means by which they can advance themselves. With Hlengiwe’s recent work we see the great potential for product development in South African craft.

This is her statement about the work that she has made for The World of Small Things.

RECYCLED BAGS AND EARRINGS

I am very aware of the “Keep environment Clean “campaign and as a South African citizen, I am very perturbed at the amount of litter that is strewn about on the streets, the verges and the beaches. I had noticed that a lot of this litter comprised of cool drink cans.

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The government seems to have “won the war” on the plastic bag saga, but tin cans still contributes to a huge percentage of litter strewn about. I feel this matter needs serious attention.

I then came up with the idea of making bags using tin top buttons and earrings using bottle tops. I source my supply from the local dump, roadside bins and even have neighbours and street children collect them for me. I wash and sterilize them, and then they are ready to be weaved together and transformed into bags.

I weave the buttons using cotton and beads. I give the entire tin to the other artist who makes caps and belts.

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I enjoy weaving with recycle material and I also do lot of weaving with recycled telephone wire strings. I believe that weaving is the way of communicating with other people, in our culture women used to visit each other and bring their mats to weave and share ideas of how to take care of their families. For me weaving is to share my feeling through it, communicate with people through my weaving. I like to incorporate it with beads, because when I first fell in love with beads I was only 12 years old, since then I have been working with beads non stop and creating new ideas.

I always enjoy sharing my experience with other people to create jobs so that they can earn a living, because I believe that as long as you have two functional hands you will never starve.

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True to self or play the market? – the South African challenge

Kevin Murray — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:28:17 +0000

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Erica Elk

In response to the recent South African election, the director of Cape Craft & Design, Erica Elk, penned these thoughts as part of their newsletter’s editorial. While focused on the South African situation, they could apply more broadly to all ventures that attempt to bring the market to play in assisting cultural development.

She reflects on the speech that opened the recent DAC Craft Awards:

Minister of Arts & Culture, Pallo Jordan, gave an interesting and thought provoking speech. The comment that stuck in my mind, which I paraphrase, was that we must be careful not to bend too easily to the dictates of product developers and trend forecasters who tell us how to adjust our products so they are more ‘palatable’ to international markets. The danger is that one day we may land up having sold our cultural heritage down the river, producing homogenised products that look like everything else in the world – which is basically what’s happened in the high streets of all the major cities around the globe.

Right now, one of the reasons why our products are so popular is because they are so different and innovative and creative and clever and capture the spirit of the people of South Africa. And we mustn’t lose this. The Minister has a very good point. We should guard our heritage and indigenous knowledge. But that doesn’t mean we should not be sharp enough to play the market at its own game – or get trapped into thinking that culture and knowledge is static. Because both those approaches could be dead-end roads. So how do we manage this contradiction between staying true to self and playing to market forces? I think part of the solution is the critical interface between education, culture and trade and the respective roles played by the departments of economic development, trade & industry, arts & culture, recreation, and education at all tiers of government.

They need to work together – which doesn’t mean doing the same thing. It should mean doing different things together – in synergy – towards a common goal. Arts & Culture programmes need to nurture creativity, heritage, language and identity. They should promote, preserve and protect to create the foundation for challenge, growth, innovation, experimentation, exploration and play. They must help us explore who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we are going to – individually and collectively. They must set standards of excellence and not settle for mediocrity. And they must do so without being prescribed to by the markets.

Economic and trade programmes need to engage with supply and demand issues – the provision and purchasing of products and services. They need to nurture entrepreneurs, create an enabling environment, deal with infrastructure and logistical blockages, they must also market and promote and create opportunities and make connections. And simultaneously our education system needs to work to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence of the youth – so that they can express their real selves and not an imposed idea of self.

Without all of the above our products will become homogenised, as our minds and aesthetic judgment are ‘colonised’ by the barrage of images and products from the rest of the world. We’ve lived for so long in a country where things have literally been reduced to black or white – good or bad – that we lose sight of the nuances and complexities of our various realities and experiences.

Instead of it having to be a question of EITHER/OR … what about if it could be BOTH/AND…? While sometimes we do have to make choices – thankfully only every five years and this one’s over! – for the remaining 365×5 days we need to live with opposites and contradictions and different ideas and opposing opinions and views. How we manage to live and thrive in this space will ultimately impact on our success. Right now, I’m really hoping that our newly elected government gets this message.

Reproduced with permission. Innovative South African craft will be represented in the upcoming World of Small Things exhibition with new work by Hlengiwe Dube.

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An Africa of Small Things

Kevin Murray — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:08:41 +0000

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Sculpture by Geraldine Fenn

The jewellery scene in South Africa has kept a very low profile. Perhaps here’s why.

Three jewellers from Johannesburg have an exhibition at Bell Roberts Gallery titled Tales from the Mantelpiece. Philippe Bousquet, originally an architect, works with family identity as a link between vintage objects. Geraldine Fenn, with a background in archeology and art history, works with trophies and glass domes. And Marchand van Tonder, a jeweller for 25 years, has created ‘Tales of Grimm’ that explore the dark side of fairy tales.

With such a taste for the miniature, clearly you have to look very hard to discover what jewellers are up to in South Africa. But it seems worth the effort.

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Let the beads do the talking

Kevin Murray — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:03:41 +0000

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Hlengiwe Dube is not only one of South Africa’s most accomplished bead artists, she is also responsible for much of the vibrant craft that emerges from KwaZulu-Natal, thanks to her work with the African Craft Centre. Finally, she has been able to distil her considerable knowledge of beadwork with this new publication. Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads promises not only to contain images of great work, but also decode the complex language of beads themselves. Here’s a blurb from the publisher:

Most of the studies of African art available in this country have been written by outsiders. And, while these accounts can be informative, there is a level of understanding that only an insider can provide. For this reason, Africa Direct is proud to present Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads. Its author, Hlengiwe Dube, is a Zulu woman raised in a traditional family. She has been director of the African Art Centre in Durban, South Africa, for many years. Her relationship with Zulu beadwork is direct and personal, much of it drawn from her own experience or stories passed down by her mother and grandmother. In Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads, she makes her expertise available to readers everywhere. In an engaging, conversational style, she talks about the “unspoken words” of traditional beadwork designs. Each color of bead, and each combination of colors, creates a different message. From the white beads that assure a lover, “Whenever I see you my heart goes white as the milk of cattle when they are milked in the morning,” to the green beads that proclaim, “I am going to wait for my husband as he works in Johannesburg,” Hlengiwe Dube leads us through the fascinating complexities of beadwork messages. Illustrated throughout with beautiful color photographs and including chapters on historical and regional trends, Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about African art from the people who create it.

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Noria Mabasa carves out a dream for herself

Kevin Murray — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:02:27 +0000

Bell-Roberts Gallery in Cape Town is hosting an exhibition by remarkable South African artist Noria Mabasa. More than 70 years old, Mabasa is one of several ceramicists from the northern province of Venda, bordering on Zimbabwe. For the past thirty years, she has been producing figures and pots with clay sourced from a local river.

Unlike other female artists, Mabasa also carves sculptures out of wood. She produces monumental installations drawing on traditional themes and the status of women. Like many Venda artists, she takes inspiration from personal visions and dreams.

While highly regarded within South Africa, art from Venda has little international profile. It would be wonderful if we could rustle up a touring show of Venda artists. If not, perhaps a residency would do. They are up for it.

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Zulu Bead-Mail

admin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:17:00 +0000

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South African craft is characterised by an abundance of beaded products. One of the most charming is the Zulu Love Letter, which according to legend developed when Zulu men began working in the mines. As they were illiterate, communication from sweethearts back in home took for the form of ornament, where particular coloured beads signified different emotions.

The meanings of the colours depend as much on their combination as individual symbolism. This is a rough glossary:

COLOUR	MEANING
Black	Marriage/separation
Blue	Trust/hatred
Yellow	Luck/misadventure
Green	Happiness/sorrow
Pink	Powerful/lowly
Red	Love/heartache
White	Purity

The status of a Zulu woman is readily identified through her ornament – her marriage status, the status of her sisters and her home region.

According to the grammar of ornament, the triangle represents father, mother and child. The meaning of the triangle changes with orientation.

ORIENTATION	STATUS
Inverted, apex downward	Unmarried man
Apex downward	Unmarried woman
Two joined as diamond	Married woman
Joined with apexes meeting	Married man

For a woman to express her love for a man, she would place a white triangle with apex down enclosing a red triangle with apex up.

Today, Zulu love letters can be obtained in tourist shops as a cheap gift. But in the context of contemporary jewellery, it does suggest particular possibilities of ornament as a communication device. While different coloured ribbons represent alternative good causes, the possibility of colour combinations has yet to be realised.

It could be objected that the meaning of any such system depends on its widespread use – something that jewellery today cannot attain. However, ornament is often the prompt for the dialogue between individuals. Translation of meaning is at least one kind of enunciation.

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Really? You don’t say.

For more information, see Beadwork in the ZULU cultural tradition.

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South African craft in Sydney

admin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:26:00 +0000

Jabulisa invitation front

Here’s a wonderful opportunity to see some of what’s emerging out of South Africa, including Zulu pottery and Master Weave ‘telephone’ wire baskets and photography by Garth Meyer (hopefully, I’ll have names for the ceramicists and weavers soon)

24 September – 11 October
Gallery Aloft, 660 Darling Street Rozelle
More information: www.southernexchange.com.au

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Review of Black Robe White Mist

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:06:00 +0000

Dorcas Maphakela was one of a new generation of black art students graduating from Witwatersrand Technicon in Johannesburg, 2003. Seeking to expand her knowledge of the arts, she saved money to spend a year as an intern at Craft Victoria. She has since picked up the pen and is starting to write exhibition reviews. So here’s a South African perspective on a Melbourne exhibition of Japanese ceramics.

Otagaki Rengetsu: Black Robe White Mist
RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
June – July 2008
Images courtesy of RMIT Gallery

Born in 1791 into the world of poverty and having survived the hardships of womanhood, Rengetsu’s immaculate pieces tell a story of self contentment. This I believe is a story not only women can relate to but anyone who is able to take a moment in time to reflect on their travelled path and the one ahead. She held Todo as natural family name; became a Buddhist nun and adopted the name Rengetsu, translated “Lotus Moon.”

Rengetsu married between the tender ages of 7 to 16 during her time at Kameoka castle where she earned a living as a Lady in waiting. Her husband passed on in 1823. She also lost all her children to illness. Following this turning point in her life she found solace in nunnery. Subsequent to relocating from one temple to another, Rengetsu finally settled at the Jinko-in where she lived her days to the last. She died peacefully at the age of eighty-five in the tea room.

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This was a well accomplished woman in her art form. Not only did she learn the Classical Japanese poetry of Waka, but her achievements included dance, pottery and calligraphy. Having being brought up in a Samurai family, Rengetsu had also acquired skills in Martial Art. This relationship is evident in the manner in which her collaborative works (gassaku) compliment each artist’s individual style. With her vast acquired expertise Rengetsu was able to achieve flawless depiction through the treatment of line. In the hanging scroll In this world,in a gassaku with Tomioka Tessai, her delicate calligraphy floats in a complimentary fashion to the paper and imagery that completes the composition, this indicates that she was a well spirited person of graceful gestures. Although loose in form, her technique captured the assurance, the strength and decisiveness of the artist. The lightness of the pieces-almost fading into its own surface draws the viewer closer to the work creating a personal viewpoint which digs deep into the persona and thus finding that point of relation to the observer.

Rengetsu engaged in a lot of gassaku. These are collaborations to observe friendship and special occasions. Her main connections were with such people as Tessai Tomioka, Wada Gozam and Kuroda Koryo who later gained the title of Rengetsu II. Rengetsu did what it took to help put her friends’ work on the map, e.g. she would inscribe her poetry in their works or even allow them to sign her name on their works. This demonstrated that her comfort did not lie in material items such as fame and fortune. Kuroda continued to sign as Rengetsu after her passing.

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When I walked into the exhibition I was immediately drawn into what laid before me. I couldn’t wait to get closer to the pieces. For me, presentation of art (visual, performance, word and so on) has the power to make or break the intended story. I must say the RIMT Gallery captured the essence of the show and as one slowly moves from one piece to the other, one gets transported through an amazing journey of tranquility and places full of peace. From the traces of her hands on the pottery to the playful yet strong significance of her poetry the entire body of work was such a marvel.

In Japanese culture tea and sake ceremonies are great social occasions for celebrations such as friendships, weddings, business partnerships, etc. By choosing to engage in collaborations (gassaku) with her friends, the results convey the enjoyment of the making process which gives a sense of shared experiences and sheer social bliss which the end user can definitely appreciate while employing her objects during tea/sake ceremony. The textural finish visible in works like This gentleman, sencha tea set, demonstrates the depth of personal engagement with her work as well as the lengthy quiet moments she shared with each piece.

This show was in great contrast to the fact that the gallery is situated smack amidst Melbourne CBD on Swanston Street with a tram stop just outside the entrance.

Black Rope White Mist truly succeeds in diverting the viewer’s attention and I’m happy to report that I was taken on a voyage from the moment I laid eyes on the first gassaku. I commend the curators and the RMIT gallery staff for being able to showcase this remarkable piece of Japanese history. I had no idea what would be ahead but I can assure you Rengetsu’s poetry stroke a chord in me and I believe I experienced some degree of healing from within.

Dorcas Maphakela

Images

Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875) and Tomioka Tessai (1836–1924), Kyoto, Japan, In this world, hanging scroll [kakemono], 1867, ink on paper; calligraphy, painting, 92.0 x 20.0 cm. National Gallery of Australia, 2005

Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791–1875), Kyoto, Japan, This gentleman, sencha tea set, 1830–75, glazed stoneware; incised calligraphy, various sizes. Private collection, Switzerland. This poem is on the water cooler, other poems illegible.

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South African design goes South

admin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:02:00 +0000

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The Design Indaba is the leading design event in Cape Town, South Africa. This year, they are using the theme of ‘South’ to celebrate the ‘gloriously positive, ridiculously naïve and relentlessly spontaneous’ elements of creativity in their country.

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Wouldn’t it be something for the designers and craftspersons in other Southern countries to join in on this celebration? The Design Indaba Conference is on 25-27 February 2009. Don’t trust all you read in the news. Find out what South Africa is really like by visiting it yourself.

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