•Who made Mowgli wear pants in the film of The Jungle Book? •What’s the reason for the current interest in contemporary African Art? •What is the life expectancy of a work of art? •Why are you still reading these questions?
Performance: Who invented Africans? 24.09.95 The performance during the conference, African Artists: Schools, Studios and Society, was silent; the following account was prepared by Elsbeth Court in conjunction with Sajid Rizvi:
During the 1995 symposium, Hassan Musa’s graphic ceremony,Who invented Africans? preceded the final panel session, ‘At Home and Abroad.’ It set the tempo for consideration of the complexities involved in the professional growth of modern artists who like himself were growing up during the early decades of national independence. The Chair, Salah Hassan, introduced Musa as “the most dynamic Sudanese artist,” referring to the scope of his critical practice as a maker and intellectual. Salah explained, “In his graphic ceremonies, Musa is interested in two things: (1) to deconstruct the idea of the exhibit which he sees as incomplete, as just one possible medium to transmit or communicate artwork; (2) to demystify the artistic process as a creative process in itself, in which an artwork can continue with endless possibilities of going on and on.” In line with these aims, for our symposium, the artist produced two specific documents which can enhance audience understanding of his practice: his parody ‘Ten Tips…’ (above) and the sketch plan for the sequence of his performance, published herein for the first time. [Figures 1.1-1.5]
In complete silence for some ten minutes, Hassan Musa performed a graphic choreography on the theme of ‘Who invented Africans’ and, by extension, who constructed ‘African art.’ Musa began by hanging a white cloth that was folded and pleated like a stage curtain. He wrote the title in black—in English—across the opening of the fold [Figure 1.1] and vigorously traced over the writing for emphasis. [Figure 1.2] Then he opened the fold, splitting the title and leaving the upper section with marks and the lower section without them. He drew long, calligraphic, gestural lines from the letter fragments, obliterating any sense of wordage. [Figure 1.3] Gradually, his line-making became denser and more painterly [Figure 1.4]; he stroked until a rectangle emerged that pulsed like a black colour field abstraction [Figure 1.5].
After that—and not in his sketch plan—Musa’s movements changed from marking to folding. He folded the cloth smaller and smaller until it was a neat, black parcel: a portable art product which was reminiscent of a gri-gri, a charm. Finally, following the discussion, in an unintended but nonetheless ironic finale, Musa presented his gri-gri to Jeff Donaldson, an American Modernist painter and professor from Washington, DC. This was a deeply ironic act because, for some twenty years, Donaldson pursued the project AfriCobra: African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists—a pun
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