Traditional African Portraiture

Western culture emphasizes individual identity, Western art features representation, and the portrait stresses  the communication of personality through facial features and expression. We do not know what John Harvard looked like, yet a quite realistic sculpted image bearing his name surveys Harvard Yard. In contrast, African culture emphasizes social identity, the African aesthetic is a generalizing one, and the portrait image is individuated by name and context.

  COMMEMORATIVE MASK (OLIMI NIKEKE) REPRESENTING 

ZlBlRl ATEKPE'S FATHER. ATEKPE. 

CARVED BY JAMES JOHN. 1978. OKPELLA. NORTHERN EDO. NIGERIA. 

ZlBlRl ATEKPE'S COMPOUND. OGlRlGA VILLAGE. 1979. 

PHOTO: JEAN M. BORGATTI. 

Although this mask, above, takes the form characteristic of a mother; a female mask with the attributes of wealth and status; it is idiosyncratic in being used to commemorate a man.

(Above) African mother carrying child in traditional Khanga dress.

I have noticed from researching into African art that dull, lifeless colours are never used in the pieces, I think this may be because Africans create work to emphasize social identity and feel that these colours represent them. I was originally, for my final piece, going to use black charcoal and white chalk but seeing this work has given me the idea to add a splash of colour into my pieces, maybe by using bleach or henna paste to create a bright orangey tone; contrasting with the black and white shades I am going to be using.

Life Drawing

I decided to stay behind tonight and partake in life drawing to get back to the basics of drawing the figure from life rather than photographs. I decided to experiment with colour more in this session as recently I have just been drawing with neutral colours such as black and white.

The drawing above, I feel, was my most successful piece from the night. I like how the pastel marks created are quite ridged and free. The reddish colour works really well in contrast to the beige paper and the limited detail that the drawing contains, I think, makes the piece really successful.

BBC News- 'Botswana's dress rules, 'sexist' '

A ban on civil servants in Botswana wearing tight or revealing clothes to work is "sexist", a women's group says. The new directive said they could be disciplined for turning up in tight skirts or trousers, sleeveless tops, or clothes that showed cleavages or backs. The BBC's Letlhogile Lucas says women are particularly angered by a ban on headscarves and elaborate hairstyles. But the government says workers should dress in a manner appropriate for public office. Bonolo Khumotaka, publicity secretary for the women's group Emang Basadi, told the BBC the ruling was sexist as the directive did not mention "anything about tight trousers for men".

Skimpy clothes will not be tolerated at work in Botswana

Botswana Art

Botswana's art is varied. Essentially it falls into two categories: that of the Kung peoples (also known as the San or the Bushmen tribes) and that of the Nguni-derived peoples such as the Batswana. The former is of greater antiquity in origin, and includes decoration of many of the devices and equipment the Kung needed for desert existence. Items such as ostrich shells, clay water filters, animal skins, arrows, bows and pots often received added decoration by way of incised or relief decoration, imprinted pottery decoration, beading and carving. These tribes also carved art objects that had no other function, most often of animals. A more ancient art is that of cave painting, for which the Kung are justifiably famous: right across the South-East African region their ancestors left dynamic paintings on cave walls, executed in unknown and highly resilient pigments that have lasted millennia. Depictions of animals, hunts, ceremonies and dances are common.

Researching into Botswanan art gave me the idea to see what kind of art they make over in Africa and try to interpret it into my work. The fact they use found materials to produce their work such as mud, clay and found animal skins really inspires me to try and create womanly figures using these kinds of interesting, different materials and see how well it works within my project.

Botswana Preperation and Research

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana (Tswana: Lefatshe la Botswana), is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens refer to themselves as "Batswana" (singular: Motswana), but many English-language sources use "Botswanan" instead. Formerly the British protectorateof Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It has held free and fair democratic elections since independence.



In the next few weeks I will be going on a trip around Africa. I am going to use the time before the trip to experiment with more medias and ways of working as well as researching into African women and the culture they live in. I think this will be a very interesting project to work with as so far I have looked how into women are represented within different ages and sizes, but not cultures.

Proposal

Review

Since the beginning of this course, I have grown as an art student in many different ways. Firstly, by gaining more confidence when thinking through my thought processes and creative ideas, and also by thinking more outside the box when it comes to the art work I produce. My physical drawing skills have improved greatly, especially since life drawing, which is something I hadn’t experienced prior to this course. My project will build upon my experience so far by experimenting with scale even larger than I have been doing, combining different medias and using more creative thinking to produce work with more meaning and interest to the viewer. Throughout this project and previous work I have developed, I will be addressing to the viewer the issue of how the body is represented and shown in different ways, focusing mainly on the female gender.

Ideas and Concept

My idea for this project is to represent the female body in different ways through drawing, painting and sculpture. I am interested in looking at the specific idea of how the female body can be objectified in today’s society by taking away the identity and emotional indicators of the female being within my work. This idea and concept has many different paths to look into, firstly, by experimenting with the 3(at least) different ways of working; drawing painting and sculpture. I could experiment with simpler 2D drawings and paintings or even use wire to create drawings of the figure as well as working with other medias such as, clay, spray paints and acrylic paint.

Contextual Research

So far I have researched into many different artists, one of which is the sculptor and painter, Giacometti. Giacometti explores the idea of the impossibility of rendering or finding an equivalent of another person. This concept fascinated me as I want my project to have a similar feeling and subtext, hence why my pieces won’t look life-like or cloned in any way, but objectified, more like a ‘piece of meat’ than a human figure.  Another main inspiration for this project is Anthony Gormley. Gormley’s metal sculptures of the body inspired me to enlarge the scale of my work more than I have been doing so far. The positions he has created the figures to be in interests me greatly as they look quite life-less and weak. I want the figures and sculptures I produce for this project to have interesting compositions also, whether that be the way they are produced or exhibited.

Techniques and Presentation

I have many different ideas for the techniques and medias I am going to use in this project including; working onto different surfaces e.g. using transparent materials relating with the meaning of objectifying the figure with no identity; using projections e.g. projecting images onto casts of the body

made from plaster, clay or even mannequins; using paint to represent the context of my work e.g. painting onto sculptures(or even 2D work) to represent a ‘piece of meat’, making the sculptures look less life like and more like a mechanical being. Presentation and displaying processes I have considered so far include; creating a 3D instillation through 2D work e.g. placing the pieces on some form of stand showcasing the figure, creating an objectifying display and meaning; experimenting with light, for example, shining a single light on the piece(s) creating a spotlight on the figure so it looks like the woman is almost as if for auction; increasing scale further, using 3D metal work to create sculptures blown up in size as realistically far as possible and hanging the pieces from the ceiling-by hooks or wire- shocking the viewer and bringing a sense of vulnerability towards the female figure.

Evaluation and Progression

I will evaluate my ideas by taking photographs of my work throughout the project and seeing which techniques, medias and display ideas work the best. Whilst experimenting and creating work if any other ideas I haven’t thought of yet inspire me I shall work with them and hope for the most successful possible outcome for the work produced leading  up to my final major project.