Is the art critic an endangered species? Is he a mystical figure dubbed a critic? Is he white writing on blacks? Critic Athi Mongezeleli Joja is looking for answers.
Archive: articles
John Baptist Ssekubulwa: Brain damage
John Baptist Ssekubulwa is among the fresh young minds on the Kampala art scene. A cluster of intelligent and ambitious fellows initiating conversations and stirring them, an ingredient that is new to the young art scene. He has just had his first solo show at Afriart gallery and this is why I had to hunt him down for a good old one on one.
Matt Kayem in conversation with John Baptist Ssekubulwa
The artist in his studio
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Is black art just a trend?
Is black art just a trend? “By putting the power of profit, the power of the gaze and the power of art into the hands of black communities, society can take this to the next level. Coupled with help from allies of all backgrounds then, and perhaps only then, can we say that black art transforms beyond a trend and into a sustainable force.”
Christabel Johanson tries to answer that ‘burning question’.
Lubaina Himid, The Dancing Master (detail of Naming the Money), 2004, courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens
Africanah.org at 5: Emmanuel Iduma on double life of homosexual men in Nigeria. Like “facing the camera with one’s back.”
Emmanuel Iduma is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Born and raised in Nigeria, he has contributed essays and stories to journals, magazines (Africanah.org among others), artists’ books, and exhibition catalogues. In 2017, he was associate curator of the Nigerian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
He is the author, most recently, of A Stranger’s Pose. He also published the novel The Sound of Things to Come and Gambit: Newer African Writing.His writing style could be characterized as literary and personal non-fiction.
This article was first published on Africanah.org December 6, 2016.
Portrait of the writer.
Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai
While Marcel Duchamp’s focus was on industrial objects, owing to the formalism and perfection of scale they represented, Kaloki turns to traditional African industry. And so the use of sisal ropes, in particular, is prominent. The sisal ropes are often hand woven and prepared in an intricate process that involves threading, weaving, and braiding, and which demonstrates the significance of pre-colonial industries that were disrupted with the onset of European imperialism and colonialism.