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| FROM COURAGE TO FREEDOM |
| EL ANATSUI / ROMUALD HAZOUMÉ / OWUSU-ANKOMAH |
22 February 2007 - 12 May 2007
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Romuald Hazoumé, And From There They Leave 2006. panoramic photograph, © artist |
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The October Gallery has commissioned three leading visual artists from West Africa to create works to mark the bicentenary of the UK’s parliamentary abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Selected for their uncompromising and visual engagement with the histories that connect Africa, Europe and the Americas, the artists each map personal and universal relationships between past and future, yet in three very different ways.
El Anatsui, Blema, Aluminium and copper wire, 2006
El Anatsui’s work often makes use of the layers of histories that underlie the material world. His acclaimed ‘cloth’ series consists of thousands of flattened Nigerian liquor-bottle tops, sewn into a vast ‘textile’ with copper-wire. “Just think about the many ways a hand must open metal caps to pour out schnapps for prayers or libations,” says El Anatsui. In his choice of material, Anatsui draws reference to the history of both liquor and cloth as items that were traded for slaves by Europeans along the West African coast. Anatsui plays with these histories, interlacing visual and conceptual ironies like strands on a loom; the ‘cloths’ are at once both supple and razor sharp; sumptuously rich and yet coldly metallic.
Romuald Hazoumé, Market Forces: (Better to Sell Meat than Men!) , 2006. panoramic photograph, © artist 2006
Romuald Hazoumé has worked with many forms of media throughout his career, from discarded petrol canisters to oil paint and canvas. For this project, Hazoumé has produced a series of large-scale panoramic photographs. One shows a site in Benin from which slave ships once departed. Depicting the site as it is today, this panoramic photo evokes an eerily haunting landscape. In dialogue with this landscape, panoramic images from a goat-sellers’ market provoke profound reflection on the financial evaluation of lives, and the dangers of ignoring the recurring patterns of history.
Owusu-Ankomah, Rising, Acrylic on Canvas, 2006.
Owusu-Ankomah’s canvases draw on geographically diverse sources such as adinkra signs from Ghana, graffiti from New York and capoeira from Brazil. In a trilogy of paintings created specially for this project, the artist declares his vision; a manifesto of love and understanding to fill the space between past and future. His work, Free expounds a need for consciousness in the present by depicting a transcendent figure with open arms and radiating heart, calling for a freedom not only of body, but also of spirit. He described undertaking this project as a kind of ‘holy mission’, and one with a profound message of hope.
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The exhibition ‘From Courage to Freedom’ is part of the Gallery’s major new project entitled “Bitter Aftertaste: Sugar, the Slave Trade and the Arts of the Atlantic World”, which includes a range of schools’ workshops, an intergenerational outreach project, and a web-resource exploring the material culture and legacies of the Atlantic trade in art and society today. |
“Bitter Aftertaste” is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. |
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RELATED TALKS
Talks on Contemporary African Art: Tate Modern: Starr Auditorium
In collaboration with October Gallery and Africa Beyond
Thursday 22 March 2007: 6.30 – 8.00 pm: Romuald Hazoumé will discuss his work with Chris Spring, Artist and Curator of African Collections at the British Museum.
Tuesday 17 April 2007: 6.30 – 8.00 pm: Owusu-Ankomah in conversation with John Picton, Emeritus Professor of African Art, in the University of London.
For Tickets: Phone 020 7887 8888 or book online at
https://tickets.tate.org.uk
Imprints on Lagos - A Bukka Event: October Gallery
Saturday 19 May 2007: 3.00 to 6.00pm
An illustrated talk on the effects of the abolition of slavery on the formation of a modern African metropolis. Speakers :Giles Omezi, Executive Director, Bukka; Sola Ogunbanjo, Director, Bukka Research; Kaye Whiteman, Former Editor West Africa.
Part of Bukka’s Lagos Future City Programme
RELATED EXHIBITIONS
La Bouche du Roi: an artwork by Romuald Hazoumé: British Museum: Room 35. 22 March – 13 May 2007
Primarily a warning against all kinds of human greed, exploitation and
enslavement, both historical and contemporary, La Bouche du Roi is a profound and thought-provoking artistic statement by Beninese artist, Romuald Hazoumé. Admission Free: www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Uncomfortable Truths - The Shadow of Slave Trading on Contemporary Art and Design: Victoria and Albert Museum:
20 February – 17 June 2007
Artists El Anatsui, Romuald Hazoumé, Tapfuma Gutsa and Julian Sinzogan will feature in this exhibition, which addresses ways the legacy of slavery informs contemporary art and design. Admission Free: www.vam.ac.uk |
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