choreography. He also stressed the immediacy of process work, how one mark or action suggests the next one and so on, and how this additive method allows for organic development and surprises.


Capturing the mood of many in the audience, a leading Zambian sculptor, Flinto Chandia confided, “…when you painted the cloth black, I was a little confused. But now I understand the problem with exhibiting a work in a museum/gallery… that it would be impossible to continue … to put something on the work … I come, like many artists, from the community and I want to add something to your piece—can we continue where you have left off? Can we share it?” To which, Musa replied, “Yes, just go ahead!”


Elizabeth Orchardson-Mazrui, a professor and artist from Nairobi, Kenya, posited, “Musa has illustrated that you cannot place art in a particular time period: you are at this moment, he has expressed himself, he is using a certain vocabulary that is himself …for me, this [registers] the whole problem we are trying to come to terms with. …leading us back to the art in question, in which the artist has his freedom to be able to express himself as he sees —his expression at that moment.”


The discussion also considered the formal qualities of the support— ‘canvas’— and use of colour. Musa noted, “Before painting, when the canvas was white, there were endless possibilities.” He reminded the audience that his supports are usually printed textiles, “To make a painting, I often use machine-printed textiles [with patterns of vegetables, fruit, motor cycles] for the ‘canvas’”. He also uses patchwork supports, which he sews himself. During the process of painting on these lively surfaces, he incorporates complementary albeit ironic and usually humorous imagery.


Returning to the performance, an unnamed person questioned, “Is this black canvas operating on a metaphysical level?” Musa replied, “I started from white. I could have started with black cloth, the support is never empty, I mean you never start from nothing, you start from something. …I started with an absolute [white] viewpoint and ended with absolute blackness. It is the cover, the beauty is in between. … I have done it under the black, it’s in between the black and white.”


Several more comments linked the performance with its subject matter. Jeff Donaldson opined,


“Well, I think that first of all we must recognize the fact that this is rearguard Abstract Expressionism … You never heard of Ad Rhinehart or Franz Klein. They did this in the 1940s. My point is—this is just as beautiful to me as it was when you had the calligraphy there or when it was white. There are beautiful things here: I can write a whole essay on how wonderfully you have wrinkled that fabric. I mean what’s the point? I don’t get it?” Salah Hassan


144 | ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN AFRICA


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16