With the gaining of independence of several African countries, Africans in photographs began to have more and more of a say in how they were photographed. This agency, this power to dictate how they wished to be seen became entrenched in the practices of African photographers after the colonial era.
What does any of it have to do with painting?
Clay as a material is malleable, thus it is able to be shaped in the artist’s vision. So, pottery can become a personal or political manifestation. As well as the aesthetic heritage, pottery is a record of the world around it, the zeitgeist and the society it was borne from. This is why recording and archiving these works are not only important for the art world but vital for history.
I have equipped myself with in-depth studies in artistic expression, philosophy and anthropology. And with these tools I weave the stories of a people into history for posterity. This is how I make things that don’t sell even if I would have wanted to sell them. No one wants such collective Karmic representations on the living room walls. But museums love such things because they bring in revenue…through projects and programs.
Her choice of materials regards decolonization. She exchanges brightly colored acrylic paint for natural earthy hues derived exclusively from organic products; with coffee being particularly important. She also uses turmeric, bluing, charcoal, bee wax, ‘pimba’, strips of black cotton, rusty nails, and wire. A new path in her artistic career that may have come from her speaking from an ayllu for historical, cultural, and symbolic significance.
The works articulate possibilities for moving beyond the modern/colonial order, offering us an opportunity to think beyond our own binary brains and consider the healing nuances of the in-between.