Art Sunday; Chidi A. Okoye

Art Sunday Sunday Oct 02 2011,

Chidi Okoye

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/chidi-okoye.html

Nigerian born, Chidi A. Okoye graduated with a distinction in sculpture (Higher National Diploma) from the Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu, Nigeria, in 1988.

For the next six years he taught sculpture and drawing at Federal Polytechnic Oko Anambra State Nigeria.

During this period, he created an outstanding collection, not only sculpting, but painting and writing as well. In Nigeria,

Poetry Wednesday; Grace Nichols, artwork by Chris Ofili

Grace Nichols

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

Poet Grace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950. After working in Guyana as a teacher and journalist, she immigrated to the UK in 1977. Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.

Her first collection of poetry, I is a Long-Memoried Woman won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She has written several further books of poetry and a novel for adults, Whole of a Morning Sky, 1986. Her books for children include collections of short stories and poetry anthologies. Her latest work, of new and selected poems, is "Startling the Flying Fish", 2006.  Many GCSE students in the UK have studied her work on WWII. Her religion is Christianity after she was influenced by the UK's many religions and multi-cultural society.

 Poems from

The Fat Black Woman's Poems
by Grace Nichols

Synopsis;

Grace Nichols gives us images that stare us straight in the eye, images of joy, challenge, accusation. Her 'fat black woman' is brash; rejoices in herself; poses awkward questions to politicians, rulers, suitors, to a white world that still turns its back. Grace Nichols writes in a language that is wonderfully vivid yet economical of the pleasures and sadnesses of memory, of loving, of 'the power to be what I am, a woman, charting my own futures'.

The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping

 
Shopping in London winter
is a real drag for the fat black woman
going from store to store
in search of accommodating clothes
and de weather so cold

Look at the frozen thin mannequins
fixing her with grin
and de pretty face salesgals
exchanging slimming glances
thinking she don’t notice
 
Lord is aggravating
 
Nothing soft and bright and billowing
to flow like breezy sunlight
when she walking

The fat black woman curses in Swahili/Yoruba
and nation language under her breathing
all this journeying and journeying
 
The fat black woman could only conclude
that when it come to fashion
the choice is lean
 
Nothing much beyond size 14
 
 

Looking at Miss World

 
Tonight the fat black woman
is all agaze
will some Miss (plump at least
if not fat and black) uphold her name
 
The fat black woman awaits in vain
slim after slim aspirant appears
baring her treasures in hopeful despair
this the fat black woman can hardly bear

And as the beauties yearn
and the beauties yearn
the fat black woman wonders
when will the beauties
ever really burn
 
O the night wears on
the night wears on
judges mingling with chiffons

The fat black woman gets up
and pours some gin
toasting herself as a likely win

Art work by Chris Ofili

Chris Ofili's new show is a lesson in learning to be free. Not of the shadows cast by other artists, but of his own. Early success makes some artists grow scared of their shadows; they get so stuck with the thing they have become known for that they are paralysed, unable to find a way forward.

Now in his early 40s, the Trinidad-based British artist recognises that the coherent development of his work isn't something he need worry about. He is centred and confident enough to know that the work will tell the story. At the end of the 1990s, having become famous for using his signature elephant dung for some years, Ofili told me he was retreating to the studio and staying out of the limelight. By then he had won the Turner prize (in 1998; he was the first black artist to do so), and been vilified by New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who in 1999 objected to the Brooklyn Museum of Art showing his black Virgin Mary.
But he didn't escape attention or controversy: in 2005, Tate bought Ofili's 2002 work The Upper Room, a complex installation of 13 paintings in a shrine-like space, designed by the architect David Adjaye. Ofili was a Tate trustee at the time.
Read more here


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jan/25/chris-ofili-tate

 

African Art, art for the weekend

Wawi Amasha
AFRICAN ARTIST LIVING AND WORKING IN USA

ALL INFORMATION FROM THE ARTISTS SITE WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE
http://www.wawiart.com


"The world is filled with so much pain and suffering, and I believe Art is supposed to heal us" - Wawi Amasha

Wawi Amasha is among an emerging generation of Kenyan artists working and living in the USA. With a professional career spanning almost two years, the artist draws inspiration from her home country.

Themes of her work mirrors varied aspects of Kenyan culture. She was born and raised by her grandmother in a small village in Embu district, about 220 miles from Nairobi, Kenya.

A keen study of her paintings reveals a seemingly deliberate lack of facial features on her subjects, She says: "This is a technique meant to portray the faceless nature of African people as viewed by the rest of the world".

But lately she is branching out to more detailed paintings while still staying true to her own original style.

If you look carefully, you will find that she places a giraffe in most of her paintings. She does this in honor of her grandfather whose name "Ndwiga" in her language means giraffe


Interview- April 2005 by Ciiku Case
What are your full names? Cynthia Grace Wawira Ndwiga a.k.a Wawi Amasha. Most of my friends and family simply call me "Wawi" pronounced "Wah-way". It's short for Wawira.

Where were you born and raised? I was born in Kadongu in Mwea District where my mother was working as a teacher and raised by my maternal grandmother in a small village called Rwika, about 25 km from Embu town in the Eastern Province of Kenya .


Mami Afrika Designs
WAWI ALSO DESIGNS EXCLUSIVE FASHIONS WITH AND AFRICAN THEME
Wawi's First Fashion Show at Zanzibar in Santa Monica - July 2007


Amasha wants to discover and explore different mediums in her efforts to provide inspiring art to her already growing fan base. But more importantly, she seeks to create art that will inspire people. She wants her art to promote Love, Peace, and unity for all humanity.

Check out the rest of her work on her website, it's worth a look.

Song Saturday, Miriam Makeba, African Civil Rights Activist.

Miriam Makeba
BIOGRAPHY from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.
Her professional career  as a singer started in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.


In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Her break came when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959 by independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. She attended the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.

Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid.

She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.

Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.

After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour.

Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).


Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990.

In November 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, in the episode "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of apartheid.

In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life.

RECENT DEATH

On 9 November 2008, she became ill while taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra a mafia-like organisation local to the Region of Campania. The concert was being held in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. A few days before 9 November 2008, an Italian journalist called Miriam Makeba in Amsterdam for an interview, however, Makeba replied that she was sorry because she was too exhausted and didn't have the strength to grant the interview.
Days later she found the energy to talk about Roberto Saviano, her tremendous love for Nelson Mandela, and the new hope of Barack Obama.
The morning of 9 November 2008, Makeba agreed to sing for the sons and daughters of immigrants staying at a local charitable organization and shelter in Castelvolturno, Centro Fernandes, where she also posed for pictures and exchanged hugs with the crowds. She stayed at Centro Fernandes until 1pm. She retired to her hotel room until 9:30pm when she arrived backstage at the concert held to remember the Camorra's victims like Domenico Noviello killed on 16 May 2008 and six immigrants of African descent killed on 19 September 2008

Perhaps angry about immigrant drug dealers cutting in on their turf in general, on September 18, 2008 members of the local Camorra shot and killed six immigrants of African descent who were working in a store selling ethnic products in Castelvolturno. Violent riots erupted among immigrants and locals prompting Italy's Minister of the Interior to dispatch 400 law enforcement agents to help keep the peace in Castelvolturno as well as other affected areas in the province of Caserta.


Organizers and the construction crew working on Miriam Makeba's last concert in Castelvolturno were threatened by members of the Camorra to pay 2000 euros for the anti-Camorra concert to go on without incident;shaken organizers bravely refused to pay the Camorra and contacted Carabinieri police officers to ensure safety during the concert. Makeba performed for around an hour and suffered a heart attack after singing her hit "Pata Pata",  and was taken to the "Pineta Grande" hospital. Doctors were unable to revive her. Makeba had requested an English version of Saviano's book, "Gomorra" from one of the concert's organizers, Corrado Gabriele. As the last notes of the grand finale, "Pata Pata," played, Gabriele and another organizer, Maria Nazionale, began climbing on the stage to present Miriam Makeba the requested book with an inscription of hope that all Africans would be able to feel happy and free in Italy. Makeba fell on the stage to the horror of the terrified and worried audience. Someone shouted words of encouragement like, "Come on, you can make it!". When Miriam Makeba arrived at Pineta Grande Clinic she was surrounded by her entourage. She seemed to be feeling better as for the most part she regained her pulse, however, after drinking some cognac she suffered a second heart attack, that one being fatal.

In his condolence message, former South African president Nelson Mandela said it was “fitting that her last moments were spent on a stage, enriching the hearts and lives of others - and again in support of a good cause

ART: African Painted Houses

THE PAINTED HOUSES OF AFTRICA

 

This is something I have had sat around on my hard drive in a half finished state for a month or so. I don’t even remember why I started it but the intent was always that it would end up here in a state that could pass as finished. When I first saw these pictures my immediate thought was ………wow………….quick find me a paint brush. Can you imagine getting up in the morning and doing a few more squares or patterns of some sort all over the front of your house!!

 

 

The art of decorating houses is known throughout Africa, but although some of the civilisations are ancient this art, practised in the form it is today is probably only a couple of hundred years old. Some academics believe what is practised today is the altered remains of an ancient tradition. Some decorative patterns seen more commonly on pottery and textiles today may have originated as traditional and even ceremonial   decorations on their ancestors houses. The idea that a regional style of decoration could be transferred from buildings to fabrics and then back is not such an outlandish idea. It would be one way of ensuring the continuation of a traditional culture, possibly in times when it was difficult for the people to paint directly onto their homes. This could have been in times of occupation or [possibly during a nomadic period of a peoples history. For example, among the Ndebele, the same type of brightly coloured and patterned ornamentation is found in clothing and house painting, but not usually on both through out the same period. Another reason for the recent popularity in painted houses could be to keep a tradition alive that was previously kept alive in traditional costume. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many African people began to wear western clothing which in preference over the traditional dress which had incorporated many cultural and   symbolic patterns.  

 

‘’ Research conducted by art historians Van Wyk and Mathews in the late-1980's and mid-1990's (culminating in two photographically-illustrated books titled African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa (Van Wyk, 1998) and The African Mural (Chanquion & Matthews, 1989)), concludes that the art of Litema cannot be understood in purely aesthetic terms. According to these researchers decorations have symbolic meaning and religious connotations, specifically relating to the Basotho life and ancestors.’’

 

Van Wyk states

‘’ Basotho murals are a form of religious art relating to the beliefs concerning Basotho ancestors, the realm of the Basotho woman, earth, creation, beauty and fertility (both in the fields and in the home). Furthermore, he suggests that the colours of decorations themselves, have strong symbolic relevance and religious meaning, in some instances even making feminist and political statements’’

 

Once you start reading you realise there is quite a lot out there on these painted houses, I can really recommend you do a bit of research, it’s fascinating. One thing I must mention though, and it’s a bit sad, apparently this is now done in some cases just to attract the tourists and not for the joy of doing it. How sad.

 

SOURCES:

"House Decoration in Lower Nubia," Terence Walz. African Images: Essays in African Iconology. Daniel F. McCall, Edna G. Bay, eds. NY: Africana Publ Co, 1975. 190-222.

Ndebele: A People and Their Art. Ivor Powell. NY: Cross River Press, 1995.

African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa. Gary N. Van Wyk. NY: Abrams, 1998

 

http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~rbarris/paintedhouses.htm

 

 

http://www.africancraftsmarket.com/Ndebele-people.htm

THE PHOTOS ARE HERE

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/83/african_painted_houses



and this is the book to look out for.

african painted houses

Pictures of African painted houses. I would just love to get up in the morning and get to work with paint brush and pots of brightly coloured paint. can you imagine what the town planners would say???
oh what a sad drab lifes we live bowing down to bureaucracy the way we do.